‘Game on’: PQ recruits UN official Sandra Hernandez as MNA candidate
Posted January 20, 2026 12:05 pm.
Last Updated January 20, 2026 2:31 pm.
Parti Québécois (PQ) leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon announced that United Nations official Sandra Hernandez will run on the party ticket in the upcoming provincial elections.
At a press conference at the party headquarters in Montreal, St-Pierre Plamondon introduced the Longueuil native as the party’s first MNA candidate. However, he didn’t specify which riding she will run in.
“The signal we’re sending this morning is show is on, game on,” said St-Pierre Plamondon, signalling that more candidate announcements will follow in the upcoming days, including several first-, second- or third-generation immigrants.
“My ambition is to build a team that inspires both in terms of competence and in terms of integrity,” he added.
Hernandez currently serves as a liaison officer and team lead in the at the UN Verification Mission in Colombia. She previously served missions in the U.S., Haiti, Western Sahara, and more in a career spanning more than 25 years with the global organization.
“I have a wonderful job that has allowed me to work and live in places many people will never have the chance to go and see how other countries function, how other people live, and in what conditions,” Hernandez stated. “The more you see that world, the more you learn how it works, and the more you travel around it, the more you understand that Quebec can and must be independent.
“I don’t know anyone who regrets managing their own affairs, deciding on their economy, immigration, taxes, social services—in short, having the power to decide on everything that affects them.
“Independence is not a partisan project. It is a national, unifying project that respects the diversity of opinions and sensitivities around a common goal: to make Quebec a state fully in control of its future. It is also, let’s be clear, a question of survival. We will not survive as a people if we do not become independent. We will see our language become a minority language, then a foreign language in Montreal, and then in Greater Montreal.”
The announcement comes a week after Quebec Premier François Legault said he’d resign.
At the time, St-Pierre Plamondon called on the CAQ government to call early elections. He said Legault’s resignation was an indication his “third way” approach didn’t work and that Quebec should become a separate country. PQ has consistently led in polls over the last year.
On Tuesday, he said the changing demographics in Quebec was another reason for why the province should become a sovereign country.
“I think the momentum is now, we have the perfect timing,” St-Pierre Plamondon said. “The demographics are very challenging in terms of the decline of French and important immigration.”
A number of high-profile Coalition Avenir Québec ministers, who were seen previously as potential successors to Legault, have since announced they would retire from politics since the premier’s decision.
The Quebec Liberals are currently in the process of choosing their next leader after Pablo Rodriguez resigned before Christmas following scandals that plagued the party.
As of now, the provincial elections are scheduled for October 2026.
–With files from La Presse Canadienne
