Coalition Avenir Qubec ministers Marguerite Blais, Danielle McCann won't run again

Two major figures in Premier Franois Legault's government will not be seeking re-election this fall.

Quebec's minister of higher education, Danielle McCann, andMarguerite Blais, Quebec's minister responsible for seniors, will both leave politics after this mandate.

McCann confirmed the news that she will not be running on Twitter Friday morning, saying she is going to be a grandmother and wanted to focus on family.

Blais posted something similar to Twitter in the afternoon.

"After 15 years, now is the time to think about me and my family. I will therefore not seek another mandate," she said on Twitter.

Both have come under fire in recent weeks for their roles in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which more than4,000 Quebecers died in long-term care.

McCann was the province's health minister at the time. Long-term care homes, known by their French acronym as CHSLDs,fell under Blais's purview.

Both ministers came under heavy scrutiny by Coroner Ghane Kamel during theinquest into deaths in CHSLDs during the pandemic's first wave.

It was recently revealed that an urgent email detailing the lack of staff at the Herronlong-term care home in Montreal's West Island was sent to both McCann and Blais, 10 days before theMontreal Gazetterevealed the deplorable conditions there.

Both McCann and Blais have continuallydefended their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the government first moved to protecthospitals against the virus, believing the staff at long-term care homes knew how to handle outbreaks of contagious diseases.

They are not the first high-profile pandemic departures. Former public health directorDr. Horacio Arrudaalsoresigned in January, in the midst of the Omicron wave of the pandemic.