Ungava needs progressive option, Québec solidaire’s Antoine Côté says

Nunatsiaq News reached out to each candidate running in the Ungava riding ahead of Quebec’s Oct. 5 provincial election. Here’s what Québec solidaire candidate Antoine Côté had to share with us.

Québec solidaire’s Antoine Côté says he’s the most progressive option for Ungava voters in Quebec’s Oct. 5 provincial election.

While the young climate activist based in Montreal is not from any community in Ungava — the province’s largest riding by area — he said voters, especially Inuit and Cree, need to be able to vote for a party that’s doing more than others to listen to them.

“We’re the only party in Quebec with an internal commission dedicated to representing First Nations and Inuit peoples,” he said. “They have real political power inside of our structure and they advise the party on Indigenous affairs, and one of their biggest contributions to our platform is cultural safety and fighting systemic racism.”

He mentioned that Quebec’s last election, in 2022, Québec solidaire candidate Maïtée Labrecque-Saganash finished second, receiving 24.5 per cent of Ungava’s vote. The party, he says, is a popular option.

“Even if I am not from the riding, if I’m elected on Oct. 5, I pledge to move to the district to meet with leaders in all the communities across Ungava,” he said, adding the concerns of those living in the North are too often ignored in the National Assembly of Quebec.

He highlighted his party’s commitment to strengthening frontline health care and addressing systemic racism.

The Québec solidaire platform has promised to make the health care budget exempt from austerity measures and to upgrade healthcare infrastructure that was neglected under former governments.

“We want to implement a wealth tax on wealth over $25 million and that would give us billions of dollars more each year to improve the healthcare system,” Côté said.

To address the cost of living, the party is promoting publicly owned grocery stores, a system the candidate says has been successful in Greenland.

Part of the party’s platform also includes a promise to fund housing in remote Indigenous communities. Côté says overcrowding is an issue that needs to be taken seriously.

In his day-to-day life, he works for a non-profit that promotes protecting public health care in the province.