{"id":919349,"date":"2026-10-03T18:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T18:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919349\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T18:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T18:08:11","slug":"ruba-ghazal-on-why-quebec-solidaires-sovereignty-is-not-against-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919349\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruba Ghazal on why Qu\u00e9bec solidaire’s sovereignty is ‘not against Canada’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest polls say<\/a> Paul St-Pierre Plamondon\u2019s Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois is potentially on the cusp of winning a majority government in Monday\u2019s provincial election.<\/p>\n

Should the PQ be held to a minority, all eyes will be on the other main sovereignist party \u2014 Qu\u00e9bec solidaire \u2014 and whether they\u2019ll work with or against Plamondon\u2019s goal of holding a referendum.<\/p>\n

The way party co-leader Ruba Ghazal described it to hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on the latest episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli, Qu\u00e9bec solidaire\u2019s vision of an independent Quebec is quite a bit different from the PQ\u2019s. <\/p>\n

\"BillDave Sidaway \/Dave Sidaway \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul St-Pierre Plamondon wants to make a country, but in his fiscal sheet during the campaign, he wants to make the state of Quebec to be less strong,\u201d Ghazal said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to increase expenses less than inflation, and this means a lot of cuts in the public services. This is not good for our society, for Quebecers, for middle-class people who pay a lot of taxes but don\u2019t have enough services, the services that they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether QS would support the PQ in the National Assembly, Ghazal responded, \u201cit depends on what they want us to work together on.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWe were able to make gains for renters. And even with a CAQ government with Fran\u00e7ois Legault, who didn\u2019t even believe that there was a housing crisis. We always fight for the people first.\u201d<\/p>\n

I understand that people, they are afraid.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRuba Ghazal
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQu\u00e9bec solidaire co-leader<\/p>\n

Ghazal also had a message to voters who like her party\u2019s policies, but don\u2019t want a referendum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing for me is to have an inclusive project, to have a country with anglophones, with First Nations, with immigrants. When I came to Quebec, I was 10 years old with my family. I didn\u2019t become sovereignist just like that. <\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that people, they are afraid. They don\u2019t believe it\u2019s a good thing. It\u2019s important to talk to people and to rally Quebecers around this project, because if you want to make a country of Quebec, it\u2019s not against Canada. And it will not be done only with two political parties in a closed office.\u201d<\/p>\n

She compared Quebec\u2019s relationship to Canada post-separation with the European Union.<\/p>\n

\"BillDave Sidaway \/Dave Sidaway \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n

Prospective voters include young anglophone Montrealers, many of whom have gravitated to the most left wing of the main parties. Ghazal said her book Les gens du pays viennent aussi d\u2019ailleurs, which chronicles her journey as a young immigrant who became a sovereignist, has resonated with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of young people who told me, \u2018I\u2019m not with the independence of Quebec, but I read your book. The way you talk about the independence of Quebec, it reassures me.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Corner Booth is also available on The Gazette\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a> and on Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest polls say Paul St-Pierre Plamondon\u2019s Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois is potentially on the cusp of winning a majority…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-919349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}