Freshly elected NDP leader Avi Lewis had offered Boulerice an overture, telling reporters he had looked his lone Quebec MP \u201cin the eyes\u201d and said, \u201cplease stay with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cQuebec is not going well. The house is not in order,\u201d Boulerice said Monday, pitching his jump to provincial politics as a means to fight battles on housing, healthcare, educational and environmental fronts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no project of (building) a country without a society project,\u201d he said, arguing that nationalist battles around sovereignty, language and culture should come in conjunction with a political approach that \u201cleaves nobody behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe experience of being in a sovereign country\u2019s parliament it showed me to what extent it\u2019s an advantage to have a real state,\u201d Boulerice said.<\/p>\n
Qu\u00e9bec solidaire co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal was jubilant as she introduced Boulerice as a candidate, calling him \u201ca fine gentleman.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been months that there hasn\u2019t been one interview\u201d without reporters asking whether Boulerice would be joining the party\u2019s fray, Ghazal said.<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n
The departing MP was the last man standing of the 59 Quebec NDP candidates who swept into office in 2011 under former leader Jack Layton.<\/p>\n
The NDP\u2019s fortunes in the province have since been in decline.<\/p>\n
Since the 2019 federal election, Boulerice has been the party\u2019s only MP in Quebec, with some suggesting<\/a> he\u2019s held his Montreal seat in Rosemont\u2014La Petite-Patrie not by way of his political banner, but as a result of his personal reputation.<\/p>\n Asked Monday how he\u2019d managed to keep the riding orange after the NDP lost races across Quebec, Boulerice said it took \u201ca lot, a lot of groundwork to stay present.\u201d<\/p>\n His departure from the NDP \u201cis not a renouncement of progressives\u2019 place in Ottawa,\u201d he said, but came out of a \u201cdesire to return to Quebec\u201d to fight progressive and sovereignist battles.<\/p>\n The NDP\u2019s recent leadership contest had attracted little attention in Quebec, with campaigning taking place almost entirely in English. Last November, the party drew ridicule when its five leadership candidates attempted a bilingual debate in Montreal<\/a>, stumbling through sometimes incomprehensible French and at times struggling to string together full sentences.<\/p>\n Boulerice had been among those critical of the candidates\u2019 French, repeating Monday that he\u2019d been \u201cannoyed\u201d by the level of French in the leadership race.<\/p>\n Across Canada, the party steadily retreated under former leaders Tom Mulcair and Jagmeet Singh, losing official party status in 2025 as it fell to just seven seats. With a recent floor crossing and Boulerice\u2019s impending departure, the party will soon drop to five MPs in the House of Commons.<\/p>\n
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