Prime Minister François Legault called for a “strong mandate” from the people of Quebec. He got it.
Despite a checkered campaign, the Coalition avenir Québec won 41% of the voters’ votes (nearly 1.5 million) and 70% of the seats in Parliament (88 out of 125).
Consequently, the CAQ reinforces its domination over the National Assembly of Quebec, by confiscating strongholds from the old parties, the Parti Quebecois and the Liberal Party of Quebec, which have seen their popular support decline to unprecedented levels.
Since Robert Bourassa in 1989, Mr. Legault is the first leader of a political party to be given the helm of a majority government in two elections in a row.
The pieces Celebration, by Kool & the Gang, and I love you like crazy by Robert Charlebois, quickly resonated Monday evening in the dining room of the restaurant L’Ancêtre, in Saint-Hubert, where caquiste candidates from the Montérégie were gathered. The candidate in La Prairie, Christian Dubé – who will be renewed in his duties as Minister of Health, promised Mr. Legault – had misty eyes.
Members of the community of Uashat Mak Mani-utenam, on the North Shore, also had their hearts set on celebrating. The caquist candidate Kateri Champagne Jourdain will be the first Innu in the National Assembly, decided the voters of Duplessis, where the PQ reigned supreme for 40 years.
The CAQ leader, François Legault, who proposed an anti-inflation shield, undertook during the election campaign to table, at the first opportunity, a bill aimed at limiting to “a maximum of 3%” the increase in government tariffs — starting with hydroelectricity tariffs — during inflationary surges.
The Legault government will face a split opposition, which will be led by the leader of the PLQ, Dominique Anglade, at least for a while, because she will have to submit to a vote of confidence at the next convention.
The engineer will begin the work of “rebuilding” the PLQ, to which only some 14.3% of voters turned, compared to nearly 25% in 2018. The PLQ not only obtained less support than the CAQ ( 41%), but also less support than QS (15%) and the PQ (14.8%). “Whether you voted for us or whether you voted for another political party, my door, our door will always, always be open,” said Ms.me Anglade, before saying a few words in English. “The work has only just begun. We have momentum! she added afterwards.
Mme Anglade managed to maintain its seat in the southwest of the island of Montreal, despite the efforts of the solidarity candidate, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, who received reinforcements from QS spokespersons, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and Manon Massé, on more than one occasion.
With a score similar to that of the PLQ, the PCQ was unable to elect a single deputy. The Conservative leader, Éric Duhaime, pointed to the “electoral distortion of the century” from which his political party suffered.
The “discontent” and the “strong ideas” of the PCQ in favor of a shrinking of the Quebec state will be expressed outside the Hôtel du Parlement. The Conservative Party of Quebec will not count on any champion in Parliament even if more than 485,000 voters lined up behind it across Quebec. The culprit: the first-past-the-post system.
“We have sown hope, for several months, in the hearts and in the minds of many Quebecers,” he declared, during a rally in Lac-Delage on Monday evening. “There, it will be the time to start consolidating all this. We will have more time and we will organize ourselves better,” he added, promising to lead the Conservative troops in the next general elections, scheduled for fall 2026. “It is clear, clear and precise ! »
For his part, the spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, quickly saw his hopes of donning the clothes of the leader of the official opposition vanish Monday evening.
MNA Émilise Lessard-Therrien was even shown the exit door by the voters of Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue, where she notably fought for the reduction of arsenic emissions from the Horne smelter.
QS lost ground in Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue, but gained ground on the island of Montreal. The progressive, environmentalist and separatist political party will count on one or two additional elected officials: the first in Maurice-Richard, Haroun-Bouazzi, towards whom several voters, shocked by the controversial remarks of Mr. Legault and Minister Jean Boulet on the risks of ‘greater immigration, have rushed.
At the time these lines were written, the solidarity candidate Alejandra Zaga Mendez was fighting hard to put the riding of Verdun in the pocket of QS.
“Whether we like it or not, we are facing a wave of caquiste,” said Mr. Nadeau-Dubois to the solidarity sympathizers gathered in the MTélus Monday evening. According to him, QS will establish itself as “the only opposition party” strong enough to “resist this wave”. “GND” has pledged to lead a “vigilant” and “proposal” opposition. “We will oppose all bad decisions,” he promised.
The leader of the PQ, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, will enter the National Assembly Chamber. He was elected in the riding of Camille-Laurin, a week after the withdrawal of the solidarity candidate Marie-Eve Rancourt, who stole leaflets in the colors of the PQ. Barely two other members of his team will follow suit, that is to say Pascal Bérubé (Matane-Matapédia), and Joël Arseneau (Îles-de-la-Madeleine). “In the eyes of Quebeckers, we are the party that ran the best campaign,” declared Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
At the time these lines were written, the CAQ had won 88 seats (+12), against 23 for the Quebec Liberal Party (-4), 11 for Quebec solidaire (+1), 3 for the Parti Quebecois (-4) and 0 for the Conservative Party of Quebec (-1).