CAQ majority government victory: is Quebec more divided than ever?

“I’m going to be the premier of all Quebecers,” is what François Legault emphasized in his victory speech Monday night, after winning his second consecutive majority government with his party, Coalition Avenir Québec.

READ MORE: François Legault re-elected premier of Quebec, leads CAQ to second majority

The party was re-elected with a resounding majority, elected and leading in 90 of the province’s 125 ridings, after a campaign that included divisive comments, Legault looked to unite in his victory speech.

“When I say that Quebecers form a great nation, I mean all Quebecers from all regions of all ages, of all origins,” he declared.

“Right up to the election, what he was saying and his ministers were saying was something completely different,” said South Asian Community activist, Dolores Chew. “They’re saying we’re here for all Quebecers, but [after] what they’ve done, I’m fearful of going forward, it’s very troubling.”

#WATCH: “Troubling outcome,” describes South Asian community activist Dolores Chew, on the election results, following Legault’s comments about immigration. On Monday, he said he’d be Premier for all Quebecers, but Chew believes otherwise.

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“He is coming out with a more inclusive message right now, whereas during the campaign, he was at least tacitly or maybe looked the other way in terms of some very exclusionary messages that his party was signaling,” said Idil Issa, co-founder of municipal party, Mouvement Montreal.

Legault and his CAQ came under fire several times for comments made around immigration. Recently, Legault saying more non-French speaking immigrants would be suicidal for Quebec.

“Even in Quebec, we need immigrants, we need workers,” said Chew. “But to win votes, you’re pandering to a sort of unfounded fear of the other, and so with Bills 21 and 96, it’s highly problematic.”

RELATED: Immigration could be source of conflict between Ottawa and Quebec’s re elected CAQ

Though the CAQ took home the most votes for a single party, the total votes for all opposition parties stacked up to around 57 per cent.

“I think that tells us something,” said Chew. “Yes, they got the seats, but in terms of the number of votes, less than 50 per cent.

“It’s a win, but there’s a lot of a lot going on under the surface,” said Issa. “There’s a lot of opposition, there’s a lot of dissatisfaction with the policies of the Coalition Avenir Québec. It’s really indicating that there’s some unaddressed divisions within society.”

Legault, on Tuesday, out in the Îles d’Orléans, holding his first press conference of his second mandate.

“I really want to concentrate on protecting French and I know many Anglophones in Montreal who agree with that, that we have to do something to stop the decline of French,” he said.

“Quebec really has to look at how to resolve some of these divisions, because it seems like they’re still there,” said Issa. “I’m not sure that the CAQ really has a program to address them, I think they played on those divisions during the election campaign.”