Qubec Solidaire's youngest MNA credits grasp of region for unseating Liberal minister

When Guy Leclerc, the QubecSolidaire candidate forRouyn-Noranda-Tmiscamingue, called upmiliseLessard-Therrienlast spring to ask if she'd consider taking his place, at first, she rejected the idea.

The 26-year-old organic farmer was hard at work establishing a vegetable and grain operation on land she and her husband bought two years ago.

And, oh yes she'd given birth to a daughter just a few months before.

"I thought with a newborn, under the circumstances, it just wasn't possible," said Lessard-Therrien, a municipal councillor in her hometown of Duhamel-Ouest.

Then, after discussing the offerwith her husband and other family members, she concludedthe best way to defend the people in the region was to take the plunge.

"We said, 'We have nothing to lose, everything to win,'" she told host Susan Campbell on CBC'sQuebec AM. "And it happened."

Indeed it did: Lessard-Therrienunseated a Liberal cabinet minister, outpolling Luc Blanchetteby 4,557 votes.

A tight race

While well ahead of the incumbent forestry, parks and wildlife minister, Lessard-Therrien'svictory was not ensured until the finalballots were counted.

The lead seesawed back and forth all night between left-leaning QubecSolidaire and the right-of-centre Coalition AvenirQubec.

Lessard-Therrien was the last candidate in the province to be declared a winner by lectionsQubec, beating the CAQ's JrmyBlangerby 506 votes.

"I'm always happy when life surprises us, so I'm very proud," said Lessard-Therrien.

'Mining and environment can work together'

In the end, the youngest MNA in theQubecSolidaire10-person caucuscredits her victory to this: Lessard-Therrienknows theregion she grew up inand knowswhat it needs to move forward.

Having her ear to the ground and being involved in municipal politics and local issues served her well, she says.

"Here it's a small community and I was very involved so I think people trust me."

Mining and forestry are the main employers in the Abitibi-Tmiscamingue region, so for a candidate who campaigned on the need to addressclimate change to provepopular may seem counterintuitive.

But Lessard-Therrien said the fact that the region depends on natural resourcesmakes it all the more important to promote clean energy and other environmental values.

"We say it's not incompatible. Mining and environment can work together."

Lessard-Therrien said the economy will continue to be driven by extraction industries, which is why she will push to increase royalties.

"We don't want the moon it's just to have a little bit of what the region gives to the mining [companies],"she says.

Those fundscould be used to invest in other economic projects, Lessard-Therrien argues, for example, supporting small businesses.

"Mining is not forever. It will last 15 to 20 years, and then it's gone," she says.As a new parent, she wants tosee lasting projects in the regionfor her children.

No slaughter house for local beef

Most products leave the region and are transformed elsewhere, sometimes south of the border, she says:a lost opportunity for workers in the region.

''We raise beef here, but we don't have a slaughter house,'' she points out.

Shipping cattle away to be butchered, then trucking backcuts of meat increases the environmental footprint.

''It's also truefor the wood:we don't have a lot of transformation here, and it's all shipped to the U.S.,'' says Lessard-Therrien, who is wary of the instability of Canada's trade partnerships.

But adding more jobs means finding workers to fill them, and the labour shortage in the Abitibi-Tmiscamingue region is acute.

"We have lots of jobs here, but nobody to take them," she laments.

Lessard-Therriensaid as the QS MNA, she'll try to attract people to the region by improving the overall quality of life, offering more cultural activities and finding other ways toretain young families.

"People are moving away because we don't have a pool anymore," she said.

As for her own future, she said it's still "astrange thought" to think she'll be commuting back and forth between her home and the National Assembly in Quebec City, some 900 kilometres away.

"But it will become a reality very soon," she said. She's ready for the challenge.