The “Cinderella team” of the Parti Québécois (PQ), as leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon called it on the first day of the campaign, was looking for a match.
Chosen by party members at the end of 2020, the PQ leader was virtually unknown at the start of the election campaign. According to the Léger pollster, 4% of Quebecers saw him occupy the seat of Prime Minister in the week preceding the outbreak.
Since then, the PQ caravan has tried to embody the saying “little train goes far”. Party at 9% in the first Léger national poll, the sovereignist formation was on Tuesday at 15% in the voting intentions. This is by far the strongest growth among the five main parties.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon began the last stage of the campaign by calling for strategic voting. “The CAQ [Coalition avenir Québec], where it sits in the polls, doesn’t necessarily need your vote,” he said this week. And the return to the fold of separatist voters lost to the CAQ in 2018 seems to be materializing, he believes.
“I don’t have precise figures, but we know that our momentum, it is undeniable. »
“PSPP” wanted to campaign on the “essential”, independence, after a series of PQ campaigns which obscured the founding idea of the party – Jean-François Lisée refused to talk about a referendum in a first term in 2018 , Pauline Marois was waiting for the “opportunity”.
On this, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s PQ is clear: the referendum would take place in a first term. In recent weeks, however, the leader has avoided commenting on a series of details regarding his country project. What currency? What army? Impossible to know. The update of the finances of a sovereign Quebec, promised twice rather than once, will wait. After the elections.
“PSPP” is now the number one choice of a quarter of Quebecers for the role of leader of the official opposition, according to a Léger poll published this week. He can thank his debates: 16% of Quebecers believe he won the first; and 21%, the second.
But according to “PSPP”, the PQ can also thank François Legault. By affirming that the PLQ had “lost the monopoly of being against sovereignty”, he said, the CAQ leader convinced many of them to “come back home”.