QUEBEC — Political analyst and former city councillor Elsie Lefebvre will attempt a comeback with the Parti Québécois in the Oct. 5 general election, reports say.
And there are suggestions she might choose to run in a Montreal riding. The PQ currently holds one seat on the island: Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is the MNA for the east-end riding of Camille-Laurin. The party holds seven seats in the National Assembly.
Lefebvre’s return to provincial politics was reported Monday by TVA, the network where she works as a political analyst.
Neither the party nor Lefebvre would confirm the report, but TVA said the PQ will announce the return of Lefebvre in August.
The high-profile analyst could help the PQ regain ground in Montreal, which is nearly all held by the Quebec Liberals.
In 2004, Lefebvre was elected the PQ MNA for the Montreal riding of Laurier-Dorion in a byelection. At 25, she became the youngest woman ever elected to the Quebec legislature.
She lost that distinction in 2016 when Catherine Fournier, now the mayor of Longueuil, was elected under the PQ banner at age 24.
Lefebvre lost her bid for re-election in 2007 to the Liberals. She then made a foray into municipal politics under the Vision Montréal and Coalition Montréal banners.
She represented the Villeray district from 2009 to 2017. She was defeated in 2017.
Now 47, Lefebvre has been a panellist on the popular TVA political show La Joute since 2020. She also writes columns for Le Journal de Montréal. She was a panellist on RDI from 2018 to 2020.
She has worked as a strategic development director for La Ruche, a Quebec crowdfunding organization supporting local entrepreneurs and businesses, since 2018.
Lefebvre’s reported return to the PQ comes as Quebec’s five main political parties continue to put their candidates and plans in place for the campaign leading to the election.
For the last few weeks, party leaders have criss-crossed the province to present the candidates who will run in Quebec’s 127 ridings.
Leading the pack in terms of announced candidates is Québec solidaire, which has revealed 94 members of its team.
The Coalition Avenir Québec, which has rebranded itself Équipe Christine Fréchette for the campaign, follows with 82 candidates ready to go.
Quebec’s Liberals have a total of 77 announced candidates, followed by the Conservative Party of Quebec with 64 and the Parti Québécois with 59.
The election is expected to be called around Aug. 29. By law, election campaigns in Quebec last between 33 and 39 days.
The Gazette’s On Quebec Politics newsletter by Andy Riga breaks down key election issues, from polling shifts to legislative manoeuvring to ideas circulating in francophone commentary that don’t make it into English-language coverage.
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