Quebec/CMEDIA: Quebec’s Minister of Municipal Affairs Geneviève Guilbault will reportedly leave provincial politics at the end of her mandate, citing family reasons.
Accompanied by her two young children, she called a press conference on Sunday to be held in her riding of Louis-Hébert, in Québec City, to announce her decision.
She listed her achievements while in office as minister of transport, municipal affairs and public security.
“I gave everything I had to politics…worked seven days a week… travelled all over Quebec…always in the field, close to the people, with my colleagues, with our entrepreneurs, with our citizens…always prioritized direct links with real people,” she said.
She said that she was pregnant with her oldest child when she successfully campaigned with the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) party for the first time in a 2017 byelection, and gave birth to her second six years ago while serving as MNA and added she wasn’t afraid of much in life, but did fear regret.
Guilbault is, thus, giving up her bid to succeed Premier and Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) leader François Legault.
Having made the decision to leave much earlier, she said that her decision had nothing to do with the premier’s announcement that he would step down.
“This decision will undoubtedly surprise many people, but it is a decision that we made a long time ago, and it has nothing to do with current events…has nothing to do with the premier’s announcement this week…with the polls or any other circumstantial factors. It is a personal family decision that is right for us because the most important thing is to be happy,” she said.
If she continued in politics, she said, she would miss her young children’s childhood. She was pregnant when she first ran in a 2017 byelection and had her second child while in office.
“Since I had my children while I was an elected official, they have never known me doing anything other than politics…and, for me, it is clear that if I continue in politics for another four years, I risk regretting having missed out on my children’s childhood in a way, because my mind would have been elsewhere during all those precious years,” she said.
Legault said that Guilbault’s election in 2017 was a “pivotal moment” for the CAQ.
“Thank you to @GuilbaultCAQ for her commitment, her energy, her grassroots work, and her trust,” Legault wrote on X. “Bravo for the changes she has brought, including, among others, for women’s safety and for our beautiful Capitale-Nationale. I understand her need to spend more time with her children.”
Guilbault has been a pillar of the CAQ for eight years. She served as deputy premier of Quebec from 2022 to 2025.
“The reason I was in politics is simple: to change Quebec for the better,” she said. “I was one of many people who were dissatisfied with certain things. So rather than criticizing in a vacuum and complaining endlessly in my living room, I decided to take action and contribute.”
She said she is not ruling out a return to politics.
“I am not closing the door on politics,” she said. “I am not closing the door on politics forever. As they say, the future is long. But today, I need my children and my parents to come first. Despite the ups and downs, I loved my years in politics.”
