The Parti Québécois won the riding of Jean-Talon on Monday, snatching it from the Coalition Avenir Québec.
At 9 p.m., with 83 polling stations counted out of 163, PQ leader Pascal Paradis led with 43.43% of the votes, compared to 23.17% for CAQ member Marie-Anik Shoiry. Olivier Bolduc, from Québec solidaire, received 16.58% of the votes, while Élise Avard Bernier, from the Liberal Party of Quebec, collected 8.87%. The candidate of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Jesse Robitaille, obtained 5.94% of the votes.
At the start of the evening, a certain worry hovered over the CAQ activists, deputies and ministers gathered in a room at the Quebec Ice Center, in Sainte-Foy. From the start of counting the first ballot boxes, traditionally those for advance voting, the PQ took the lead.
The PQ activists met in a restaurant bar in the heart of the shopping center sector in Quebec. The communications team was expecting a “crowd,” so many that they advised media to show up a few hours early. Shortly after the polls closed, it was difficult to navigate the crowds gathered at the N Bar.
Enthusiasm was felt early among the PQ troops. From 7 p.m., the crowd chanted its optimism: “We’re going to win, we’re going to win, we’re going to win!” », Launched a mixture of young and old heads.
After a final exit-vote blitz, the PQ troops, including candidate Pascal Paradis and the leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, returned in front of a television around 5:30 p.m. to follow the election night. On site, at the activist rally, several former candidates dotted a crowd of around 200 people.
Around 8:20 p.m. Monday, the appearance of the first results on the screen injected adrenaline into the PQ players. In the PQ electoral team, we expected that the advance vote — counted first — would go mainly to the CAQ. The results of the first minutes invalidated these predictions.
Around 8:40 p.m., between two “Pascal, Pascal, Pascal!” », the PQ took a lead of 1000 votes, extracting from the PQ activists a traditional cry: “We want a country!” ”, they sang.
The PQ caucus has only three deputies since the October 2022 election, which saw the sovereignist party obtain anemic scores in the national vote. However, the PQ team led by Paul St-Pierre Plamondon continues to climb in the national polls. In the Quebec region, it now represents the first choice.
The participation rate was 53.13% a little after 9 p.m. In 2019, during a recent by-election, 49% of voters exercised their right to vote in Jean-Talon.
CAQ MP Joëlle Boutin then made a gain for her party in this constituency which had been a liberal stronghold for decades.
Mme Boutin announced his resignation this summer, which forced the holding of this complementary election.
In total, 10 people were candidates in Monday’s poll, compared to eight during the last general election, in October 2022.
More details will follow.