Coalition Avenir Québec ministers Marguerite Blais, Danielle McCann won't run again
Opposition called for their resignations after new details emerged about Herron seniors' home
Two major figures in Premier François Legault's government will not be seeking re-election this fall.
Quebec's minister of higher education, Danielle McCann, and Marguerite Blais, Quebec's minister responsible for seniors, will both leave politics after this mandate.
McCann confirmed the news that she will not be running on Twitter Friday morning, saying she is going to be a grandmother and wanted to focus on family.
Blais posted something similar to Twitter in the afternoon.
"After 15 years, now is the time to think about me and my family. I will therefore not seek another mandate," she said on Twitter.
J’aurais souhaité l’annoncer aux citoyens de mon comté en 1er, mais je ne me représenterai pas. Je serai grand-mère au printemps. C’est une des plus belles nouvelles, et qui me pousse à me consacrer à ma famille. Je ferai le point devant les citoyens de Sanguinet prochainement.
—@MinistreMcCannBoth have come under fire in recent weeks for their roles in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which more than 4,000 Quebecers died in long-term care.
McCann was the province's health minister at the time. Long-term care homes, known by their French acronym as CHSLDs, fell under Blais's purview.
Both ministers came under heavy scrutiny by Coroner Géhane Kamel during the inquest into deaths in CHSLDs during the pandemic's first wave.
It was recently revealed that an urgent email detailing the lack of staff at the Herron long-term care home in Montreal's West Island was sent to both McCann and Blais, 10 days before the Montreal Gazette revealed the deplorable conditions there.
Both McCann and Blais have continually defended their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the government first moved to protect hospitals against the virus, believing the staff at long-term care homes knew how to handle outbreaks of contagious diseases.
They are not the first high-profile pandemic departures. Former public health director Dr. Horacio Arruda also resigned in January, in the midst of the Omicron wave of the pandemic.
with files from Radio-Canada