The nomination period for the provincial elections is now over: 880 candidates are officially in the running for the October 3 election. Analysis in figures.
More female candidates
With 381 candidates, women account for 43% of the candidates, a percentage slightly higher than that of the ballot of 1er October 2018, where there were 40% female candidates.
Québec solidaire (QS), led by Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, is the party with the most women: they make up 56% of all party candidates. The Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) of François Legault follows closely, with 55% of candidates presented.
Only the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) of Éric Duhaime is not in the parity zone, which is between 40% and 60%, with 38% of female candidates in its team. Note, however, that the party is presenting many more female candidates than in the last election of 2018 (18% women).
For the five main political parties, the rate of feminization of candidacies is 47%, a statistic applauded by the director general of the Groupe Femmes, Politique et Démocratie (GFPD), Esther Lapointe.
“With the historic record of 2018 (47.4% of female candidates), we now know that political parties can recruit as many women as men. In 2022, it is time to legislate to obtain parity for good, both for candidacies and in the Council of Ministers! “, she reacted in a press release.
An average of 45 years
The average age of candidates is 45, the same age as in the last election. The men are 46 years old on average, a little more than the women, 44 years old.
It is also in the age group of 40 to 49 years that we find the most applications, that is to say 27% of the candidates. There are also 123 young candidates aged 18 to 29, or almost 15% of all applications. Among them are 54 women (44%) and 69 men (56%).
With 53 applications out of 144 candidates (37%), women are the least numerous in the age group of 60 years and over. This is also the only age group where applications do not reach the parity zone.
And for the parties? The CAQ brings together the oldest candidates, with an average of 49 years for its 125 candidates. It is 10 years older on average than Québec solidaire (QS), which has the lowest average age, located at 39 years old.
However, it is not at the CAQ that the candidates are the oldest: among all the authorized political parties, four present even older candidates. It is even the Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec that has the highest average age of all, with an average age of 62 for its 12 candidates.
Candidates from 21 parties
Furthermore, apart from the 5 main parties represented in the National Assembly, there are 22 other authorized political parties. Among them, there are more well-known parties, such as the Green Party of Quebec, but also more unknown parties such as the Culinary Party of Quebec.
Of the 27 authorized parties, 6 are not presenting any candidate: the Bloc Pot, the New Democratic Party of Quebec, the Animal Party Quebec, the Party for the Independence of Quebec, Quebec Integrity and Quebecers United for Equality. So only 21 parties are fielding candidates this year.
Among the five main parties, only the Liberal Party of Quebec, led by Dominique Anglade, will not have a full team of 125 candidates in the ranks, since the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec (DGEQ) rejected the Liberal candidacy in Matane -Matapedia.