At a crossroads | Empty your heart? No thank you!

This summer. However, our columnists are reaching out to artists, politicians and business people who are at a turning point in their careers. Consequently, Alexandre Sirois spoke with Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. Nevertheless, whose “life has changed completely” since he has moved away from the tumult of politics in March.

Posted at 5:00 a.m.

I first see Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois from afar. Therefore, sitting on a bench in Park Molson, rue Beaubien, in Montreal.

The first thing that anyone should notice, I say to myself, is his casual look. Consequently, Under his jacket, he wears a white t-shirt to the pass from which he crossroads | empty your heart? suspended his sunglasses. Furthermore, He sips a coffee in a cardboard cup, the air relaxed.

I had it text. Nevertheless, a little earlier, to tell him that I would arrive at our interview, in his neighborhood, with a slight delay.

His answer: “No stress. Meanwhile, »»

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois seems to be light years from the politician who has often been seen under tension. Furthermore, live from the National Assembly, in the past two years. Moreover, To manage crises. Furthermore, To turn off fires. However, To receive blows.

This contrast is essential, from the outset, as a subject of discussion.

“My life has changed completely. For example, And for the best as far as I am concerned. Therefore, I spend more time with the people I crossroads | empty your heart? love and I feel relieved of a weight that had become huge. Moreover, Unbearable, ”he confirms.

“It’s not just that I have more time in quantity. Furthermore, It is that, when I am with my children, my blonde, I am more present. However, »»

Almost three months ago today, he resigned as a co-spokesperson for Québec Solidaire and parliamentary chief. Therefore, He also announced that he was going to leave his deputy post at the end of his mandate.

See the announcement of his withdrawal from political life

Which makes. Moreover, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois the prototype of the politician at the crossroads.

Then. he added two other elements which he took into account when he decided to throw in the towel.

“When I started, I was very young, I was 21 years old. And the last two years of these 15 years have been very difficult. Really. »»

Something had died at home, he sums up.

That’s crossroads | empty your heart? what he felt. And this is what he discussed with one of his friends. who found the expression just to express what was going on: he had lost his momentum.

This momentum which pushed him. for example, to embark on the search for solutions as soon as a crisis was triggered or that a problem arose.

“This is what has broken in the past two years. mainly because of the crises that have shaken Quebec Solidaire and which took me to task. It left traces. It was enough for a few weeks of parental leave [fin 2024] For things to clarify in my head. that I arrive at the conclusion that it was time for me to pass the torch. »»

Finally, there is another reason that pushes him to leave political life. But she has crossroads | empty your heart? nothing to do with this one, with Québec Solidaire. It is because he did not want to “be a man. another, who sacrifices his children on the altar of his ideals”.

I specify here that Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois hesitated before giving us an interview as part of this summer series. Because he didn’t want to rehash them, these crises.

He was the target of many criticisms within his party and, more broadly, from the left, he recalls.

He evokes for example the book of an “ex-colleague”. taking care not to name the former MP Catherine Dorion-even if this work published at the end of 2023, The burned headsis not tender towards him.

We feel that, even freed from his obligations as spokespersons of QS, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois weighs his words.

He behaves like a boxer who would have two radically different ways of fighting. He does not hesitate to exchange blows with his political opponents. but refuses to do it with those who attack him and who come from his own camp.

In their case, he just collects the blows.

And it is not here, in front of me, that he will change his approach.

“I have judged that the thing to do for my political family. for the project that we carry was to keep a reserve so as not to fuel the quarrels, the internal tifling. Will I respond one day? Maybe, but I don’t go there, ”he explains.

On the other hand. he does not hesitate to take stock of his years (almost eight, so far) spent in the National Assembly. Both in terms of good sides and less good.

“Something that I will miss. that I will try to find in the new life that will be mine is the feeling crossroads | empty your heart? of being useful. When we help a family from our neighborhood to find accommodation after a wild eviction by a speculator … When you manage to win. in a parliamentary commission, an amendment which, even if it seems banal, will change the lives of thousands of people … Concretely, when you manage to advance an idea in public debate, you feel useful, “he explains.

What he will not be bored, of course, are the multiple debates, as heartbreaking and sterile, with his own colleagues.

But that’s not all, he says.

“The incessant placement that has become our public debate. There is a dynamic where social media, continuous news … I have the impression that all of this contributes to a kind of complaint overbidding. of which sometimes relevance, usefulness is not clear for me. »»

crossroads | empty your heart?

So don’t expect Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois to become a full-time member of any ex-Politicians on TV.

“It doesn’t mean that I won’t be seen in the media. but on a daily basis, I don’t interest me,” he said.

Speaking of ex-Politicians who now give in political analysis. former PQ chief Jean-François Lisée described as “abandonment” the departure of Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.

A word that has remained across the throat of the solidarity politician.

Because that’s anything but abandonment, he says.

To prove it, he quotes his colleague Manon Massé.

“Commitment is neither a marathon nor a sprint. It is a relay race. She was the one who told me that one day. The stick goes from one crossroads | empty your heart? individual to another, from one generation to another. And the relay, we also do it to ourselves. »»

Because he believes that commitment is available in cycles.

“For me, a 15 -year cycle ends. I start another cycle, whose trajectory I do not yet know. But I am 35 years old. I have a good part of life in front of me, ”he says.

He says he is just as angry as before when he hears about families ousted from their accommodation. young people who arrive at school with empty stomach.

This is proof. obviously, that he may have lost the momentum to be co-spokesperson of Québec Solidaire, but that his ability to indignant remains intact.

And if he has not yet found where. how he will channel this energy which still animates him, it is clear that Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois has not yet said his last word.

“I have no abandoned the ambition to build a Quebec where these things will not happen crossroads | empty your heart? anymore,” he said. But life can not just be to always be spent at 100 %. I want to be able to continue to be useful. Then for that, you have to agree to take moments to resume your breath a little. »»

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