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Quebec’s national assembly hall, known as the Salon bleu, will be extensively renovated with seating reconfigured into a “horseshoe” shape.
The plans were announced Thursday by the Bureau de l’Assemblée nationale (BAN), consisting of elected representatives from the Coalition Avenir Québec government, the Quebec Liberal Party and Québec solidaire. The Parti québécois does not have enough members to sit on the BAN.
The current seating arrangement in the Salon bleu is inherited from the British parliamentary tradition. It places the government and the “loyal opposition” face to face.
In 2020, the government House leader, Simon Jolin-Barrette, said he would like to see a “new layout to improve the working climate.”
The assembly’s former president, François Paradis, suggested taking advantage of the renovation work to rearrange the chairs in the hemicycle, like in France, but the idea was quickly dismissed by his successor Nathalie Roy.
“Let’s get down to business: the




