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Amir Khadir says Québec Solidaire has missed the boat so far when it comes to wooing left-leaning anglophones in the province.

On Thursday evening, the Québec Solidaire MNA spoke to about 80 of them at a party panel discussion in St-Henri. The topic: Defeating the Liberals: What role for the anglophone left?

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“I must admit we have been lazy in our thinking and trying to do something to open up the dialogue in the direction of anglophones, but also immigrants, newcomers, racialized communities,” Khadir said.

In part, that’s because though it has always had members from those communities, the 11-year-old party didn’t want to target various groups because it did not want them to feel like second-class citizens and did not want to practise “clientelism,” Khadir said.

Another problem was how QS has talked to anglophones about its pro-sovereignty stance, he added.

“We thought all anglophones are afraid of the possibility that Quebec separates politically from Canada,” so instead of explaining why it supports sovereignty, QS was “always on the defensive and then the anglophones also approached us defensively.”