“Historic” victory for the CAQ, first Aboriginal woman in the National Assembly: The duty looks back at four key moments of election night.
The majority CAQ
Only 10 minutes after the closing of the polls at 8 p.m., The duty announced that the next government would be CAQ and majority.
The prediction was quickly confirmed in the evening, when the electoral map was tinged with powder blue, with the exception of Montreal. At the time these lines were written, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) had won 41.22% of the voters’ votes and 71.2% of the seats in Parliament (89 out of 125).
Since Robert Bourassa in 1989, Mr. Legault is the first political party leader to be given the helm of a majority government for two elections in a row.
“Quebecers have sent a strong message. This evening, Quebecers told us: “Let’s continue!” “, declared around 11:30 p.m. François Legault, describing his victory as “historic, because we managed to elect the largest number of women in the history of Quebec! »
“I am going to be the prime minister of all Quebecers,” proclaimed Mr. Legault, whose remarks on immigration have sown controversy in recent weeks. François Legault also reached out to the opposition parties, showing his openness to working with them.
According to the re-elected Prime Minister, “the priority must remain education”, a theme which was however little discussed during the election campaign.
A split opposition
The Legault government will face a split opposition, which will be led by the leader of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), Dominique Anglade. The PLQ won approximately 14.42% of the votes, and 17.6% of the seats in Parliament (22 out of 125).
However, the PLQ received less support than Québec solidaire (QS) and the Parti québécois (PQ), which obtained 14.93% and 14.64% of the votes respectively. However, in the National Assembly, this represents only 8.8% of the seats for QS (11 out of 125) and 2.4% for the PQ (3 out of 125).
A gap that the two leaders did not fail to denounce in their post-election speech. “Our political system is broken, our democracy is sick, and the electoral map this evening does not reflect the political will of Quebeckers,” declared Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, calling on the province to “relaunch the reform of the mode of ballot”.
The Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ), which trails the first four parties in the percentage of votes (13.07%), however, did not win a seat in the National Assembly.
Four elected leaders
The outgoing Prime Minister, François Legault, retained his seat in the riding of L’Assomption, winning 58.8% of the vote, far ahead of his opponents.
Same landslide victory for Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois in Gouin, where the co-spokesperson for QS obtained 58.5% of the vote.
The leader of the official opposition, Dominique Anglade, also maintained her seat, facing the solidarity candidate Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, in the riding of Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne.
The PQ leader meanwhile dethroned the outgoing CAQ MP, Richard Campeau, in the riding of Camille-Laurin.
Only the Conservative leader was not elected in his constituency. Chauveau remained in the hands of Sylvain Lévesque, of the CAQ. But Éric Duhaime will not stop his run for the National Assembly there. “I will still be there in the next election campaign, that’s clear, clean and precise,” he said, adding that he was going to “consolidate” his “movement”. “Get ready, because in four years it’s going to be a lot more tough. »
A first indigenous woman in the National Assembly
The candidate of Innu origin Kateri Champagne Jourdain easily won the PQ stronghold of Duplessis, with 45.2% of the vote, becoming the first Indigenous woman to enter the National Assembly.
Mme Champagne Jourdain, originally from the Innu community of Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam, worked on the band council, then got involved in the Arnaud mine project. She was also the general manager of the Galeries Montagnaises, the first shopping center set up and managed by Aboriginal people in Canada, and was involved in the Apuiat wind farm project.
The 41-year-old candidate thus takes over from PQ member Lorraine Richard, who did not run in these elections.