PQ pulls off minority, CAQ wiped out

The Parti Québecois (PQ) will form the next government of Québec with Paul St-Pierre-Plamondon as Premier.

The separatist party won the Monday, October 5 provincial election, defeating the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), which has governed since 2018.

However, the PQ only achieved a minority government with 59 seats in the 127-seat National Assembly, meaning the new government will need to rely on the goodwill of other parties in the legislature to get any legislation of significance adopted. It also means that St-Pierre-Plamondon’s aggressive rhetoric calling for another sovereignty referendum is likely to slow down given the PQ’s lack of a majority mandate from voters. The PQ Leader had also said during the campaign he would not pursue another referendum as long as Donald Trump remained in office due to the associated economic and political uncertainties.

St-Pierre-Plamondon was elected in the Camille-Laurin constituency in the east end of Montréal.

The Parti Libéral du Québec, led by Charles Milliard experienced a modest resurgence in popularity at the polls, resulting in 40 seats, up from 18 in the last legislature. Milliard was elected in the Eastern Townships constituency of Orford.

Aside from the PQ, the biggest winner in the election was the Parti-conservateur du Québec (PCQ). A dormant name in Québec politics since the 1930s, the provincial conservative party reappeared in the 2010s and has steadily increased in popularity. Under Leader Éric Duhaime, the PCQ went from one seat in the National Assembly to 19 seats in Monday’s election. Duhaime won his Central Québec constituency of Bellechasse.

The socialist Québec Solidaire won nine seats, down from 11 prior to the election.

The incumbent CAQ was completely wiped out and did not win a single seat. Leader Christine Frechette lost in Trois-Rivières to PQ candidate Jean Pellerin.

At 9:41 pm on Monday evening, Frechette conceded the election to St-Pierre-Plamondon.

On Tuesday, Élections Québec reported that voter turnout was 66.9 per cent with 4,356,011 votes cast across Québec.