The Parti Québécois won Quebec's Oct. 5 general election and will form a minority government. CBC News projected the minority, and CTV, the Globe and Mail, CNN, Al Jazeera and AFP reported the same result. The PQ took about 59 of the 127 seats in the National Assembly, five short of the 64 needed for a majority. The Quebec Liberal Party, led by Charles Milliard, took about 40 and will be the official opposition. The Parti conservateur du Québec of Éric Duhaime won about 19, and Québec solidaire roughly nine on a live tracker. The Coalition Avenir Québec, in office since 2018, won none, and Premier Christine Fréchette lost Trois-Rivières. The PQ's vote share was about 28%, the lowest ever for a winning party in the province. Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon promised a referendum on independence in his first mandate but only after Donald Trump leaves office in January 2029.
This is the first PQ government since 2014, in a province that held referendums in 1980 and 1995 and rejected independence both times. The party does not hold a majority and won on a minority of the vote, so the practical question is how long it lasts and what it can pass. A government that depends on the Liberals or Conservatives for every confidence vote cannot move quickly on a referendum, but it can use the office to press Ottawa on immigration, language and funding. The result also arrives two weeks before Alberta's non-binding vote on a separation process, which gives national unity a second front.
Nothing changes at your door this week. Quebec law and federal law stay as they are, and the minority means no referendum is imminent. If you do business in Quebec, watch for early signals on language rules and public-sector contracts, which a PQ cabinet can adjust without a new law.
The PQ won more seats than anyone else, and a mandate is a mandate. A party that has said for years it wants independence put a date range on a referendum, and voters made it the largest party anyway. Ottawa should take that seriously rather than treat it as a protest.
Seven in ten voters chose someone else. A government elected with 28% has no mandate to break up the country, and its own leader said voters asked it to work with other parties. The sensible reading is a vote for change from the CAQ, not for independence.
Watch the arithmetic, not the speeches. A referendum needs a motion to pass the National Assembly, and no opposition party has said it would vote for one. The number to track is whether the Liberals or Conservatives agree to support the PQ on any confidence vote, and on what terms. If neither does, this government may not survive its first budget.
CBC News (projection and key takeaways) · CTV News (Fréchette loses seat; Plamondon wins his seat) · The Globe and Mail · CNN · Al Jazeera · AFP via Kuwait Times · U.S. News (AP) · Courthouse News (vote shares and turnout as cited from Élections Québec) · Rolling Stone Canada (all Oct. 5–6). Seat totals are election-night counts and may change.
The Parti Québécois wins Quebec with a minority government. It promises a referendum, but only after Trump leaves office
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon's party took 59 of 127 seats on about 28% of the vote, five short of a majority. The governing Coalition Avenir Québec was shut out, and its leader lost her own riding.
Quebecers elected a Parti Québécois government on Monday night, but not the one the party wanted. CBC News projected a minority, and the tallies reported by CTV, the Globe and Mail, CNN and Al Jazeera agree on the shape of it: the PQ at 59 seats in the 127-seat National Assembly, five short of the 64 needed to govern alone. The Quebec Liberals under Charles Milliard rose to about 40 seats and will form the official opposition. Éric Duhaime's Conservatives won about 19, and Québec solidaire roughly nine on a live tracker. The Coalition Avenir Québec, in power since 2018, won no seats at all. Premier Christine Fréchette, who switched ridings to run in her hometown, lost Trois-Rivières, according to CTV News.
The PQ took about 28% of the vote, which reporters describe as the smallest share ever to win an election in Quebec. Courthouse News, citing Élections Québec, put the Liberals at 24.4%, the CAQ at 13.3% and turnout at 66.9%. Late surges for the Liberals and Conservatives are what denied Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon his majority. In his victory speech he spoke of the long struggle of French speakers in a mostly English-speaking continent and said it would find its meaning in a country of their own. He also said voters had asked the PQ to work with the other parties, and he has promised a referendum only once Donald Trump has left the White House, in January 2029. Without a majority he would need opposition votes to hold one, and to survive confidence votes in the meantime.
The result lands two weeks before Albertans vote on Oct. 19 in a referendum of their own, a timing that national-unity advocates will notice. Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon's first test is more mundane: the legislature must be recalled, a cabinet named and a budget path agreed with parties that did not vote for him.