{"id":179784,"date":"2018-09-03T01:18:18","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T05:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=179784"},"modified":"2018-09-03T01:18:18","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T05:18:18","slug":"losing-vision-four-years-ago-isnt-stopping-quebec-candidate-campaign-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/09\/03\/losing-vision-four-years-ago-isnt-stopping-quebec-candidate-campaign-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Losing her vision four years ago isn’t stopping Quebec candidate on campaign trail"},"content":{"rendered":"
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St-Laurent is proud to be running, regardless of whether she is the first, and comfortable with the idea she could inspire others. (File Photo<\/a>: Camille St-Laurent\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL \u2014 Quebec solidaire’s Camille St-Laurent wants voters to see beyond the fact that she cannot.<\/p>\n

The left-leaning sovereigntist party touts St-Laurent, 23, as the first visually impaired candidate to seek office in Quebec provincial politics.<\/p>\n

St-Laurent is proud to be running, regardless of whether she is the first, and comfortable with the idea she could inspire others.<\/p>\n

But she also wants electors to look past her disability.<\/p>\n

“I want people to see beyond that and what I can give to them – all the experience I’ve had in my life, I want to share with them,” she said in an interview.<\/p>\n

The political novice decided last winter to seek election in the Oct. 1 provincewide vote after consulting friends and family.<\/p>\n

Just four years ago, running in politics would have been an afterthought for the native of Granby, Que. That’s when a newlywed St-Laurent lost her vision after several surgeries for detached retinas.<\/p>\n

St-Laurent said her personal grieving is complete and politics is a way to move forward.<\/p>\n

“I said why not give it a try?” she said. “It’s a life experience too.<\/p>\n

“I thought to myself that I can do it. Yes I’m blind. Yes I’m 23. But these are things I can use in my favour.”<\/p>\n

A Quebec solidaire supporter since becoming an adult, she became involved at the grassroots level last fall. Not long after, the party began gauging her interest in running.<\/p>\n

Although she lives in Quebec solidaire’s east-end Montreal powerbase, she picked the western Montreal riding of Marguerite Bourgeoys where the party has never topped more than 1,508 votes in an election.<\/p>\n

Alongside a team of volunteers, she’s also learning more about the multicultural electoral district that includes a large Sikh population. She first visited the riding while attending the local gurdwara with her husband, who is Sikh.<\/p>\n

She says living with a disability allows her to put her empathy, openness and willingness to listen to others to the forefront – advantages on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n

“For me it’s much more of a strength than a negative that I lost my vision,” she says.<\/p>\n

Pitted against Liberal cabinet heavyweight Helene David among other candidates, an undaunted St-Laurent said door-knocking during the campaign’s first week went well as she pitched her priorities like accessibility and fighting poverty.<\/p>\n

Four years removed from a life-changing experience, St-Laurent feels she’s ready to give back to society through politics.<\/p>\n

“If you want to make change, do it yourself and go for it,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014 Quebec solidaire’s Camille St-Laurent wants voters to see beyond the fact that she cannot. The left-leaning sovereigntist party …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":179785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-sidhartha-banerjee","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}