Qubec Solidaire leaders: Franoise David and Amir Khadir

Qubec Solidaire may still be in its political infancy, but the provincial party says it is ready to win seats in this election, offering voters a viable, left-wing alternative to the Parti Qubcois.

In the 2007 Quebec election, QS garnered 3.65 per cent of the popular vote, just behind the Quebec Green Party.

The party rules by consensus and rejects the traditional concept of a "leader," choosing instead to front two spokespeople, Franoise David and Amir Khadir.

QS was created in February 2006 with five governing principles: sovereignty, feminism, social equality, pluralism and ecology.

In this election, QS is focusing on family, the economy and sovereignty as three driving issues.

QS is calling for a major economic shift in the province, to reduce the influence of big banks and multi-national companies and foster locally based industries focused on Quebec natural resources.

The party wants to draw up a Quebec constitution and hold a referendum to resolve the sovereignty issue once and for all.

The party also supports nationalizingwind energy, raising corporate taxes and investing massivelyin public transit, among other policies.

Qubec Solidaire is in favour of electoral reform, including proportional representation thatallocates seats according to the popular vote.

QS is seen as a wild card in some swing ridings, especially in Montreal,where it poses a vote-splitting threat to the Parti Qubcois.

David and Khadir are both prominent community activists who have worked on various social justice issues in Quebec over the last 20 years.

Franoise David: community organizer, feminist

David is best known as the past president of the Fdration des femmes du Qubec, the province's largest women's organization, which she ran from 1994 to 2001.

David helped found the feminist political movement Option Citoyenne (Citizen Option) before assisting in the creation of Qubec Solidaire in 2006.

She was instrumental in producingthe 1995 Women's March against Poverty in Montreal and the 2000 World March of Women against Poverty and Violence, two events that drew tens of thousands of participants.

Davidran as a QS candidate in the central Montreal riding of Gouin in 2007, finishing second, behind the PQ, with 26 per cent of the popular vote. David is running again in Gouin in the 2008 election.

Born in Montreal in 1948, David is the daughter of the late Paul David, a well-known Canadian cardiologist, founder of the Montreal Heart Institute and past Conservative senator, appointed by former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

David studied community organization at the University of Montreal and worked at Montreal's Social Services Centre until 1987. She was made a Knight of the National order of Quebec in 1999.

Amir Khadir: physician, social activist

Amir Khadir is an activist doctor and one-time Bloc Qubcois candidate who has been involved in humanitarian causes for two decades.

Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1961, he immigrated to Quebec at the age of 10 with his family. He studied medicine and physics at the Universit Laval, McGill University and the University of Montreal.

Khadir is a specialist in infectious microbiology who now practices at the Centre hospitalier Pierre-Le-Gardeur in Lachenaie, Que., a suburb east of Montreal.

The father of three has been actively involved in Mdecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) and worked on projects in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe and India. He's also a member of the Coalition of Doctors for Social Justice in Quebec, which opposes private health care.

Khadir ran unsuccessfully as a federal Bloc Qubcois candidate in Outremont in 2000.

He helped found the political party Union des Forces Progressistes in 2002, running under its banner in the 2003 provincial election in Montreal's Mercier riding, where he earned 18 per cent of the popular vote, well behind PQ incumbent Daniel Turp.