MONTREAL — Quebec Green Party leader Alex Tyrrell launched his party’s 11th general election campaign with a sweeping critique of economic inequality, environmental destruction and militarism, arguing that Quebec needs a political alternative willing to challenge corporate power and put working- and middle-class people first.
Speaking alongside Green candidates at the beginning of the provincial campaign, Tyrrell presented the party as an ecosocialist alternative to Quebec’s larger political parties, focusing his remarks on affordability, housing, public services, environmental protection, public transit, racism and international peace.
“Quebec is doing badly. Very badly. And yet Quebecers work hard,” Tyrrell said. “We get up every morning to work, study and take care of each other.”
Tyrrell said the Green Party wants to put “ordinary citizens, the 99 per cent, at the heart of government action.”
Cost of living and inequality at centre of campaign
Much of Tyrrell’s speech focused on the rising cost of living and what he described as an economic system increasingly tilted in favour of wealthy property owners, corporations and monopolies.
He pointed to people struggling to pay for groceries, housing, transportation and health care despite working and paying taxes.
Tyrrell also criticized the concentration of the grocery industry, arguing that rising food costs demonstrate the need for a public alternative.
The Green Party is proposing a network of 250 publicly owned grocery stores supported by a public distribution system extending from farms to consumers.
Under the proposal, the public network would purchase food from producers, manage distribution and sell directly to consumers. Tyrrell argued that the model could support local agriculture, reduce food waste and make nutritious food more affordable.
The party has previously identified public groceries as one of its major economic proposals during the lead-up to the election.
Greens propose rent reductions and free public transit
Housing will also feature prominently in the Green campaign.
Tyrrell reiterated his party’s proposal to reduce rents by a total of 20 per cent over four years and allow tenants in apartment buildings to expropriate their landlords in certain circumstances to transform their buildings into housing cooperatives.
He linked the housing crisis to broader inequality, describing homeless encampments and growing lines at food banks as signs that Quebec’s economic system is failing a growing portion of the population.
The Greens are also campaigning on free public transit.
Tyrrell argued that Quebecers have become increasingly indebted through car payments, fuel and other transportation expenses while governments have failed to provide a sufficiently attractive public alternative.
“We propose making public transit fast, efficient and free,” he said.
Tyrrell attacks renewed push for resource extraction
Environmental protection remained a central theme of the campaign launch.
Tyrrell criticized what he described as a renewed political push for extractive development and warned against reopening Quebec to shale gas, oil development and new pipelines.
He pointed specifically to a proposed graphite mining project near Lac-des-Plages and Duhamel in the Outaouais, an area he recently visited.
Tyrrell said the project illustrates the environmental costs governments are increasingly prepared to accept in the name of economic and military objectives.
He accused governments of asking Quebecers to sacrifice natural environments for private profits while presenting extractive projects as economic necessities.
The Greens are calling for stronger protection of lakes, rivers and forests, greater public access to waterways and a rebuilding of the province’s Environment Ministry.
Anti-war message distinguishes Green campaign
Tyrrell also placed opposition to militarism near the centre of the party’s political identity.
He denounced growing military expenditures and plans for new defence financing initiatives, arguing that public money should instead be directed toward housing, health care, education and the ecological transition.
The Quebec Greens are calling for Canada to leave NATO, for the closure or conversion of weapons manufacturing facilities, and for Quebec to pursue a foreign-policy approach centred on diplomacy, environmental cooperation and what the party calls ethical trade.
Tyrrell also called for breaking ties with the Israeli government over the war in Gaza and said Quebec should be prepared to challenge the United States when its policies conflict with Quebec’s interests and values.
“We propose working for world peace,” Tyrrell said. “To close the war factories.”
Racism and Montréal-Nord
Tyrrell devoted part of his address to racism and police accountability, focusing particularly on recent allegations concerning officers in Montréal-Nord.
He denounced reports involving police officers collecting hair from Black men and argued that internal police investigations are insufficient to restore public confidence.
Tyrrell called for genuinely independent and public investigations of police misconduct and a zero-tolerance approach to racist behaviour throughout public institutions.
He stressed that the proposal should not be viewed as opposition to policing itself, saying police have an important responsibility to protect the public, including victims of domestic violence.
“Everyone has an interest in ensuring that police officers are subject to independent investigations in order to rebuild trust and increase the population’s sense of security,” he said.
Indigenous reconciliation and public services
The Green leader also highlighted conditions facing Indigenous communities.
Recalling a previous visit to the Anishnabeg community of Lac-Barrière, Tyrrell criticized the poverty and infrastructure deficiencies faced by the community despite the exploitation of natural resources on its traditional territory.
The party is proposing free electricity for Indigenous people and their communities as one component of its reconciliation platform.
Tyrrell also promised stronger health and education systems, affordable housing for people fleeing domestic violence, measures to combat femicide and intimidation, restrictions on pesticide use and an end to what he called “secret lobbying” through closed-door meetings between ministers and corporate executives.
“More than a cute little Green Party”
The speech also sought to define the Greens as a broader left-wing political movement rather than a single-issue environmental party.
“We are more than a cute little Green Party,” Tyrrell said. “We are the bearers of change. We are the opposition to the status quo.”
Tyrrell repeatedly framed the election in class terms, accusing what he called the “capitalist bourgeoisie” and corporate oligarchs of exercising disproportionate influence over Quebec politics, media and economic policy.
He also accused major media organizations of marginalizing the Greens and predicted the party would receive limited coverage and be excluded from the leaders’ debate.
The party nevertheless intends to use the campaign to present itself as the political voice of peace, environmentalism and working- and middle-class Quebecers.
“We are the next generation,” Tyrrell said. “We are the Green Party of Quebec. We are the party of peace, of the working class and of the middle class.”
He concluded by urging Quebecers dissatisfied with the established parties to use their ballots to challenge the political status quo.
“Voting for the Green Party of Quebec is a strong gesture that goes off the beaten path,” Tyrrell said. “It is a gesture for the environment. It is a gesture for peace. It is a gesture for social justice.”
“Every vote counts. Every political action against the system counts. Long live Quebec, long live the environment, long live social justice and long live peace.”
