Quebec’s election campaign has officially begun; election day is Oct. 3

Quebec’s general election campaign has officially begun.

Outgoing Quebec Premier Francois Legault met with Lt.-Gov. J. Michel Doyon Sunday morning, during which the representative of the Crown dissolved the legislature and declared the general election.

Campaigning will continue until voting day on Oct. 3.

The five main parties are:

• François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Quebec
• Dominique Anglade’s Quebec Liberal Party
• Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and Manon Masse’s Quebec Solidaire
• Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s Parti Quebecois
• Eric Duhaime Conservative Party of Quebec

CAQ

The CAQ is hoping to form a second majority government. Polls are suggesting Legault will cruise to victory.

Most polls show Legault with support in the mid-40 per cent range – more than double that of his closest adversary, the Liberals.

Poll-aggregator website QC125.com pegged the probability of Legault’s party winning a majority government at more than 99 per cent.

Against the backdrop of the iconic waterfalls of the Montmorency River in Quebec City, CAQ Leader and most recent premier Francois Legault told reporters he’s not taking victory for granted.

“If there’s one thing I learned during the pandemic, it’s to be humble, because things change very fast,” Legault said.

LIBERALS

Meanwhile, Quebec Liberal Party Leader Dominique Anglade was already dogged by questions Sunday morning about the fallen stature of her once-mighty party. Despite forming the official Opposition before the legislature was dissolved, the Liberals have less than 17 per cent support, according to the latest Leger poll – and they are polling at about seven per cent with the francophone majority.

Anglade shrugged off the polls and said the campaign was an opportunity to “restart at zero.”

QUEBEC SOLIDAIRE

In Sherbrooke, Que., the left-of-centre Quebec solidaire, which in 2018 won seats outside Montreal for the first time in its history, positioned itself against what it called the tired old parties of the past 30 years.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, his party’s leader in the legislature and choice for premier, said the CAQ is nothing but a coalition of the two legacy parties – the Liberals and the Parti Quebecois – whose time has run out. The old parties, he said, have allowed the environment and the health-care system to deteriorate while they have proposed “patchwork” solutions.

“We tried, in Quebec, the Liberal Party. We tried the Parti Quebecois. We tried combining the two, the coalition of the two … that’s the Coalition Avenir Quebec.” This election, he said, is the “last chance” the province has to address climate change.

PARTI QUEBECOIS

In Montreal, Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, whose sovereigntist party is far from the days when it was a serious contender for government, appealed to Quebecers’ emotions. He said his “Cinderella team” will go further than anyone expects.

CONSERVATIVES

The fifth major party in this election is the Conservative Party of Quebec. Its leader, Eric Duhaime, took the party from near obscurity less than two years ago to one that is receiving about 14 per cent in the polls and has a good chance of picking up some seats. The party’s only member of the legislature before it was dissolved was Claire Samson, who won in 2018 with the CAQ but switched parties in 2021.

Duhaime told reporters Sunday in the Quebec City area that his party is promising to cut income taxes, reduce the size of government and exploit the province’s natural resources – including its fossil fuels.

“If you look at our promises … we have one thing that obsesses us more than anything else: improving the quality of life of Quebecers,” he said. “We all have the sense that our quality of life has deteriorated under Francois Legault.”

Seat breakdown as the legislature broke for the summer:

• CAQ: 76 seats
• Liberals: 27 seats
• Quebec Solidaire: 10 seats
• Parti Quebecois: 7 seats
• Conservatives: 1 seat
• Independents: 4 seats

—With files from The Canadian Press.