The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) will be losing one of its star players in the National Assembly in two years. Six years after being elected for the first time in the Montreal riding of Saint-Laurent, Liberal Marwah Rizqy has decided she will not run in the next election, which will take place in October 2026. In a particularly emotional press conference held Tuesday morning at the National Assembly, the MNA confirmed that she will be leaving politics for at least 15 years at the end of her term, which she has pledged to complete. The news of her upcoming departure was first announced by 98.5 FM, followed by Radio-Canada. Mme Rizqy then posted a long message on social media.
The mother of two young children, the MNA explained at the press conference that she wanted to be fully present for them, specifying that it was [her] decision and that it was final and without appeal. "I want to fully live my role as a mother. I want to be able to be in the same city as my young children and to be able to tuck them in at night."
Rizqy also recounted that her partner, Gregory Kelley, who also sits in the National Assembly as the Liberal MNA for Jacques-Cartier, had offered not to run in the next election so that she could continue her political career. She said she refused. The idea of leaving politics had been on the MNA's mind for several months, she confided, adding that her decision had crystallized after the birth of her second child, Abraham, this summer.
Asked about the difficulty for women to raise children while pursuing an active political career, Marwah Rizqy candidly admitted that she personally was unable to juggle everything. Mme Rizqy also doubts that additional accommodations at the National Assembly would have allowed her to continue her work as an elected official without harming her family life. She therefore chose to devote herself full-time to her children. "I don't have two speeds, I'm either 100% or completely stopped, and my choice is really to raise them," she said at the press conference.
Her eldest son, Gabriel, will soon be two years old, while Abraham, born last summer, is not yet four months old. "I wanted to have these children so badly, I want to raise them myself," emphasized the MNA, who used assisted reproduction to give birth to her two sons. "I can't imagine being a part-time mother who sleeps three or four nights a week away from them," she illustrated. "I want to be fully present for them."
It's never a good time to make this kind of announcement, repeated Mme Rizqy several times during her press conference on Tuesday. The MNA, however, said she believes that by revealing the date of her departure right away, it will not overshadow the next PLQ leader, who will be elected in 2025. Not to mention that the riding she will free up could be used to welcome an unelected leader in 2026, she hinted.
Rizqy will return to her position as associate professor at the School of Management at the Université de Sherbrooke at the end of her term, a position she held before entering politics. At the press conference on Tuesday morning, she assured that she was not leaving the National Assembly to run for office elsewhere, thus closing the door to a candidacy for mayor of Montreal or for the House of Commons.
Marwah Rizqy was elected to the National Assembly in 2018 and won a second term in 2022. Considered a potential candidate for the PLQ leadership, she has had to repeat several times that, for family reasons, she would not be seeking to succeed Dominique Anglade. The announcement of Mme Rizqy's departure, two years before the next general election, took the political class by surprise on Tuesday. However, her colleagues and opponents were unanimous in praising the human qualities of the MNA for Saint-Laurent, as well as the rigor of her work in the opposition.
The interim leader of the PLQ, Marc Tanguay, praised her genuine and passionate commitment to public life. "You will have made a tangible and positive mark on Quebec politics," he wrote to her on the X network. Candidates for the leadership, such as Frédéric Beauchemin and Charles Milliard, also paid tribute to her on Tuesday. Even Denis Coderre, whose record as mayor of Montreal had been ridiculed by Mme Rizqy, sent flowers to the resigning MNA, pointing out that it was a heavy loss for the PLQ.
The same sentiment was echoed by the CAQ, the PQ and QS. The Québec solidaire leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who will soon have a second daughter, confided that he and his partner feared the accommodations necessary to continue his political action. From France, where he is on a diplomatic mission this week, Premier François Legault warned Mme Rizqy that it's not easier to do politics once the children grow up and become teenagers.
