Ruba Ghazal: from child of Bill 101 to aspiring premier

MONTRÉAL – Ruba Ghazal says Québec solidaire is “tattooed on her heart.”

Twenty years after helping to found the party in 2006, she is leading the left-wing party into the Oct. 5 election, as its co-spokesperson and choice for premier.

Throughout the campaign, she has presented herself as the defender of public services in a climate where many other parties want to reign in spending. She also promised to tackle the high cost of living with measures such as a ceiling on rent hikes and a wealth tax on those with assets worth $25 million or more.

In a Sept. 23 debate, she promised to serve as the “bulwark against austerity.”

“Every time a Québec solidaire MNA has arrived at the national assembly, it’s made a difference,” she said,” citing work to combat femicides, protect elderly tenants, and support a ban on energy drinks for youth.

Ghazal, 48, has repeatedly cited her own immigrant background as an example of how politics should be more inclusive.

In August, she criticized Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s decision to stand outside a school while making an immigration announcement, accusing him of blaming children for overcrowding and deteriorating school infrastructure.

Born in Lebanon to a family of Palestinian refugees in 1977, she arrived in Quebec at the age of 10 and grew up between Montreal and Laval. Ghazal notes that none of her family spoke French on arrival, but they integrated and learned, thanks in part to the laws requiring children to go to school in French.

“I was that immigrant child myself, a child of Bill 101,” she said.

Ghazal’s journey to becoming a candidate for premier spans decades. She has said that her parents initially hated politics, due to the association with violence and war.

Despite this start, Ghazal became one of the founding members of Québec solidaire in 2006, alongside Françoise David and Amir Khadir,

A year later, she ran for office under the party’s banner in the Montreal riding of Laurier-Dorion, finishing fourth. In 2008, she again failed to unseat the Liberal candidate but improved her showing by finishing third.

It was in the 2018 general election that Ghazal entered the legislature, after succeeding Khadir as the Québec solidaire candidate in Mercier, also in Montreal. She was re-elected in 2022.

It also took her two attempts to become the party’s female co-spokesperson. In 2023, Ghazal was narrowly defeated by Émilise Lessard-Therrien in the second round of the race to succeed Manon Massé.

She stepped into the job after Lessard-Therrien resigned, as the sole candidate in the running.

Before becoming a member of the legislature, Ghazal also worked in several factories, notably as a health, safety, and environmental consultant.

Ghazal has also pointed out that her father was a shopkeeper, rejecting notions that her party is anti-entrepreneur. For nearly 20 years, he ran a “dollar store” on Plaza Saint-Hubert in Montreal. Ghazal, her brother, and her sisters worked there in the evenings and on weekends.

She says she understands the realities of entrepreneurship after seeing her father make many sacrifices.

Ghazal says she’s been inspired by some of the women of Québec solidaire who came before her, including Manon Massé and Françoise David.

“In the 1990s … I would listen to Françoise David, a feminist who led the (women’s group) Fédération des femmes du Québec, and I’d think to myself: ‘My God, her words inspire me. Then I thought, ‘If Françoise ever goes into politics, well, I’m going to follow her.’ And in the end, that’s exactly what happened,” Ghazal recounted at a press conference last May.

Ghazal and her party also advocate for Quebec’s independence. Throughout the campaign, she’s promised to build a consensus that includes Indigenous people, immigrants and anglophones to achieve sovereignty for Quebec.

“For me, it’s a fundamentally democratic project, Quebec independence,” she said during one of the leaders’ debates.

On Thursday, Ghazal was back in Montreal — where her party’s support is highest — pitching a plan to put a moratorium on evictions during winter months and to reform the province’s housing tribunal to better protect renters.

Québec solidaire entered the race trailing in the polls, and remains an extreme long-shot to form government. But Ghazal has said she’s proud of the campaign she’s run, and urged voters not to vote strategically in any of the tight races.

“People are fed up with strategic voting. What they need is for their voices to be heard,” she said. “Me, I invite Quebecers to vote with their hearts.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2026.