OTTAWA — NDP Leader Avi Lewis said Monday he won’t run in an upcoming Quebec byelection to fill a seat being left vacant by Alexandre Boulerice.
Boulerice officially announced Monday he is leaving Parliament to run provincially for the Québec solidaire after spending 15 years as an MP.
He will sit as an Independent until he formally resigns his seat in the Quebec riding of Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie ahead of the provincial election campaign call this fall.
Boulerice said he feels he has completed his work federally and framed the move as a continuation of his progressive work rather than a political calculation.
“It’s not a decision that is taken lightly,” he said. “After 15 years and five election victories, I felt I had done what I needed to do in Ottawa and that it was now time to come back home, here, to Quebec.”
His departure is another blow to the NDP, which saw its worst-ever performance in a federal election last year when it won just seven seats. It needs 12 seats for official party status in the House of Commons; without it, the NDP does not have seats on House committees and loses out on caucus funding.
The NDP caucus was further reduced to six MPs in March when Nunavut MP Lori Idlout crossed the floor to the Liberals.
Boulerice’s departure will cut that total to five. He was also the party’s only MP in Quebec and the only one east of Manitoba.
Lewis, who was elected less than a month ago to lead the party, said he encouraged Boulerice to stay on in Parliament.
“I think everyone did and when I saw Alex in my first moments as leader, I did what I think a responsible leader should do because everyone had heard the rumours for a long time and we knew he was considering it,” Lewis told reporters Monday.
“But it’s clear that this decision has been a long time in coming and we were ready.”
Although Lewis doesn’t hold a seat in the House of Commons, he said he won’t run in the vacated seat because Quebecers should be represented by someone from Quebec and it’s too soon for him to consider a run.
“This is not a riding where I will seek election myself,” he said. “I’m not a Quebecer and there’s a lot of interest already locally.”
Boulerice said his shift to provincial politics reflects where he believes the most urgent battles are now being fought in Quebec.
“The house is not in order,” he said. “We need to fix Quebec.”
He said issues like housing affordability, public services and inequality have become increasingly difficult to address from Ottawa, and stronger provincial action is required to respond to what he described as mounting social pressures in Quebec.
Lewis said Monday he believes Boulerice’s move is different from recent floor-crossings and what he called “opportunistic moves that we’ve seen from MPs recently.”
In addition to Idlout, four MPs elected as Conservatives joined the Liberals between November and April.
“This is a move of principle,” said Lewis. “Alexandre wants to put his considerable skills as a politician and as a fighter for progressive values to work in his province, and we respect that decision.”
Lewis said he’s “not fazed” by the decision.
“It’s a riding that we’re going to work our butts off to maintain and I’m confident we’ll have an excellent candidate,” he said. “We’re looking forward to the byelection.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters Monday he wished Boulerice good luck and that the two have a good relationship, despite their obvious political and ideological differences.
Bloc Québécois MP Christine Normandin said in French Monday that she also wished Boulerice luck.
She said he seemed to be making a “funny” transition from a very centralist party to a party that claims to be sovereigntist.
Asked if the Bloc can win the Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie riding in the byelection, Normandin said it will be up to voters.
“As we did in every byelections, we’ll have a strong presence on the ground and we’ll voice the message, but in the end it’s never us to decide,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 27, 2026.
—With files from Charlotte Glorieux in Montreal
Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press
