Ex-student activist Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, with Québec solidaire, to leave politics

By Canadian Press on March 20, 2025.

MONTREAL — Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, co-spokesperson of the left-wing Québec solidaire party who rose to prominence during the 2012 student strike, says he is stepping down from the party’s leadership team.

He resigned today as co-spokesperson and House leader, and says he will stay on as a member of the legislature for his Montreal riding until the next election, scheduled for October 2026.

Nadeau-Dubois, 34, told reporters today he feels “worn out” from internal crises within the party, and doesn’t want to stay in politics now that he is a father of two young children.

He became a household name in Quebec during the 2012 student movement against tuition increases, appearing regularly on television and participating in high-profile negotiations with the Liberal government of the time.

First elected to the legislature in a byelection in 2017, Nadeau-Dubois was re-elected in the 2018 and in 2022 provincial elections.

In recent years the party has been wracked by internal divisions, and in May some 40 current and former members and candidates of Québec solidaire published an open letter accusing Nadeau-Dubois of being too “pragmatic.”

In April 2024, Émilise Lessard-Therrien resigned a few months after being elected co-spokesperson and pointed to Nadeau-Dubois’s team as one reason for her departure.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2025.

Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press