CAQ WINS MAJORITY IN QUEBEC.
Parti Québécois projected to lose official status
In a historic election that marked a departure from Quebec’s longstanding debate over independence, the centre-right Coalition Avenir Québec swept to power for the first time in the province as the incumbent Liberals delivered their worst showing in decades and the sovereigntist Parti Québécois were all but decimated.
Though opinion polls had shown the CAQ in nearly a dead heat with the Liberals heading into election day, they emerged with a majority government. As of 11 p.m. ET, the CAQ led or were elected in 74 ridings, easily outstripping the 63 needed to form a majority, with 38 per cent of the popular vote. The Liberals were leading or elected in 32 seats with 25 per cent of the vote, down from the 68 they held in the province’s national assembly under outgoing premier Philippe Couillard.
The CAQ, launched in 2011 by leader François Legault — who will now become Quebec’s next premier — broke a string of alternating Liberal and Parti Québécois governments that dates back to the PQ’s founding in 1968. Monday’s election represented an implosion for the sovereigntist party, which was projected to lose official status by failing to secure either 12 seats or 20 per cent of the vote, its worst result since 1973. PQ leader Jean-François Lisée lost his own seat in Montreal to the left-leaning sovereigntist upstart party Québec Solidaire, and as of 11 p.m. the party was expected to retain just nine seats with 17 per cent of the vote. Québec Solidaire, led by co-spokespeople Manon Massé and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, looked set to increase its seat count from three to 10, with 16 per cent of the vote. Voter turnout was estimated around 67 per cent.
“Today we made history,” Legault told CAQ supporters gathered in Quebec City Monday night. “Today there are a lot of Quebecers who put aside a debate that has been dividing us for 50 years. Today, a lot of Quebecers showed us that we can work together, even if we are yesterday’s adversaries, in favour of tomorrow’s future, together.”
In a concession speech earlier Monday night, Couillard said “Quebecers clearly indicated their desire for change. And (Legault) is here now to continue Quebec’s growth.” Couillard did not immediately resign, but said he would take a few days to consider his future.
The Liberals had been in power in Quebec since 2003, with the exception of a shortlived PQ government between 2012 and 2014.
“We established a foundation to make Quebec more prosperous, more fair and more ecologically friendly,” Couillard said in conceding. “Believe me, I leave Quebec in a much better state than I found it in.”
Lisée resigned during his concession speech, saying the loss of his seat had sealed his fate. But he insisted that the PQ has a future. “Tonight is a shock, yes. But we stand high, straight, because Quebec still needs the Parti Québécois,” he said. “As long as there are fights that need to be led for justice, equity, the environment, secularism and French, then Quebec will need the Parti Québécois. As long as Quebec is not a country, Quebec will need the Parti Québécois.”
The 39-day campaign was the first in at least a halfcentury defined by issues other than the longstanding question of independence. A promise by the Parti Québécois not to hold a referendum in its first term if elected created an opportunity for Quebecers to vote along new political lines, with immigration, health care, education and the economy taking centre stage.
The CAQ had an early lead in the polls, with Legault — a former airline executive and PQ cabinet member who says he has abandoned the sovereigntist cause — positioning himself as the change candidate and the “premier for the economy,” promising to put more money back into Quebecers’ wallets. But the party’s lead had appeared to dwindle over the course of the campaign as he faced criticism for a controversial promise to expel immigrants who after three years in the province fail a French language and Quebec values test.
Couillard campaigned on his government’s economic performance — the Liberals have managed to bring Quebec’s high debt levels under control since Couillard’s election in 2014, posting budget surpluses for the past three years. But Couillard also bore the weight of a party that has been in power for most of the last 15 years and was tainted by corruption scandals under former premier Jean Charest.
And as the PQ struggled to find a raison d’être without its traditional pillar of Quebec sovereignty, the leftleaning Québec Solidaire experienced a late-campaign surge in the polls.
Even without a focus on sovereignty, Quebec politics still haven’t played out according to the same left-right divide that exists elsewhere in the country. Though the CAQ has promised to cut immigration levels, for instance, there is cross-party support for the province’s cap-and-trade carbon-pricing system, despite conservative governments across the country taking aim at the federal government’s carbon pricing plan. The province’s subsidized daycare program also has broad support, with Legault promising a flat rate of $8.05 per day, instead of the existing system that charges more to higher-income parents.
A LOT OF QUEBECERS SHOWED US WE CAN WORK TOGETHER.