Lapointe returns to counsel PQ leader on seniors’ issues
Former Parti Québécois MNA Lisette Lapointe is returning to the fold of the party she had quit seven years ago while its caucus was in turmoil.
Lapointe, the widow of former Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau, will act as a counsellor to the PQ. Party leader Jean-François Lisée announced Friday that Lapointe is joining the team “to polish the commitments the party makes toward the elderly of Quebec.”
Lisée noted that Lapointe served as the party ’s spokesperson for the elderly when she was an MNA in the Crémazie riding in northern Montreal.
Lapointe announced her return on Thursday via Twitter. She made reference to other former PQ MNAs who had quit the party but have since rejoined. That includes Jean-Martin Aussant, who will run in the provincial election later this year. Lapointe concluded the tweet with: “It is just a start, this relaunch!”
Lapointe was elected as the MNA for Crémazie in 2007 and then reelected in 2008. She left the PQ’s caucus in June 2011, at the same time as colleagues Pierre Curzi and Louise Beaudoin, while con- troversy swirled over the support Pauline Marois, head of the party at the time, gave to a proposal for the construction of the Vidéotron Centre in Quebec City. Aussant left the party a few days later.
At the time, Lapointe said she no longer recognized the party Parizeau once led. She also criticized the party for having dis- tanced itself from its goal of sovereignty.
She stayed on as an independent MNA until the 2012 election. Following that, she was elected mayor of St-Adolphe-d’Howard from 2013-17. As mayor, she fought in vain against a Hydro- Québec power line project.