Legault urged to stay course on electoral reform vow

The Mouvement Démocratie Nouvelle, a group dedicated to replacing Quebec’s first-past-thepost electoral system, is hoping the winds of change promised by the Coalition Avenir Québec will enact electoral reform before the 2022 election.

After last week’s electoral win, premier-elect François Legault said he’d uphold his promise to implement electoral reform during the first year of his term.

In May, the CAQ, Parti Québécois, Québec solidaire and the Green Party of Quebec all signed a document vowing to implement a mixed-member proportional representation system if they were elected.

Only the Liberal party declined to support this initiative.

Mouvement Démocratie Nouvelle director general Jean-Sébastien Dufresne says the CAQ’s majority government has the requisite legitimacy to proceed with this reform.

Dufresne says Québec solidaire and the Parti Québécois, which won 10 and 9 seats respectively, received enough popular support to be recognized as official parties.

In terms of their popular vote share, both parties should have won more than 20 seats.

Dufresne believes CAQ MNAs Benoît Charette, Simon Jolin-Barrette and Claire Isabelle could push for this reform since they’ve closely collaborated with the Mouvement Démocratie Nouvelle.