However, after James left provincial politics, she stated that her thinking on the niqab has evolved. The district of Saint Laurent, QC, where she sought a federal candidacy in a by-election, was 17-per-cent Muslim in the 2011 Census of Canada. On February 24, 2014, James announced she was leaving politics, and would not seek re-election in the 2014 election. On February 12, 2017, James confirmed on Twitter that would be seeking the Liberal Party of Canada's nomination for the Saint-Laurent federal electoral district. A 26-year-old high school teacher, however, defeated James for the Liberal nomination in that riding. Emmanuella Lambropoulos beat James and tax law professor Marwah Rizqy to secure the nomination. James currently provides commentary to several CBC political programs, including as one of four former National Assembly ministers on the noonhour CBC Radio Canada program "Le Club des Ex" and as a member of the "Power Panel" on Power & Politics, an English-language political program on CBC News Network.