CHRIS LOWREY
PONTIAC Aug. 29, 2018
After re-emerging as a provincial political party in 2014 and electing their leader earlier this year, the New Democratic Party of Quebec (NDPQ) is hitting the campaign trail.
The party has chosen 22 year-old Samuel Gendron to take up their mantle in the Pontiac riding.
Gendron is currently studying for his Bachelors degree in economics and political science.
He chose the upstart party because he said none of the existing ones appealed to him.
At the party’s leadership convention in January, Gendron worked on behalf of the party’s leader Raphaël Fortin.
It seems he impressed the party’s brass because he was asked if he’d like to run in Pontiac – a riding held by Liberal cabinet member André Fortin.
He said the party’s first priority is to get their message out to voters in order to let them know where the party stands on certain issues.
“Right now, 100 per cent of the campaign is to get the word out there and once we’re actually known, then we’ll start pressing these issues even more efficiently.”
He made it clear that the NDPQ is not a sovereigntist party before getting into specifics about party policies.
One of the party’s main priorities is pushing for an improvement in transportation infrastructure – specifically province and nation-wide electric vehicle charging stations.
He also spoke about the need for organizations like TransporAction, whose volunteers drive mobility-challenged people to appointments in the city.
“We’re actually working to establish a plan to make sure that these types of organizations actually get the support that they need,” Gendron said. “Let’s be honest, a bus system isn’t going to fix the problem in Quyon and Fort Coulonge.”
He said it’s unrealistic to expect people to ride a bus into the city for an appointment and then have to wait until 5 p.m. until they can catch the bus back home.
Gendron also identified education as another priority for his party and said the NDPQ would boost funding for public schools.
“For education, we’re trying to cut all the funding from private schools and redistribute that to public schools,” he said.
He also pointed to the graduation rate in the Outaouais as a major concern.
“In Quebec, 80.1 per cent of [students] graduate after seven years,” he said. “In the Outaouais region it’s 69.8 per cent after seven years so it’s easy to see that we have some catching up to do in this region.”
On the healthcare front, Gendron said his party’s main priority is ensuring that nurses in the region are compensated fairly and their working conditions are improved.
Many nurses in the region have complained about being forced to work to the point of exhaustion and they have pointed to chronic understaffing as the main culprit.
“The nurses are probably the most necessary [staff] in the hospital and we treat them as if they’re not,” he said.
Gendron said one issue that isn’t receiving enough attention is the fact that three to four per cent of the farmland in Quebec is being bought by foreign investors. He said this drives up the cost of land thanks to land speculators.
He pointed to a Union des Producteurs Agricoles idea that would limit foreign investors to 100 acres.
He also said that his party wants to make it easier for landowners to transfer their land to their children.
“Right now, under our laws, it’s easier to [transfer] a section of land to a stranger than it is your own son,” he said.
