PQ still in first place among Quebec voter: poll suggests

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s Parti Québécois (PQ) continues to enjoy the support of Quebecers, even in times of economic uncertainty caused by the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House.

This is what’s suggested by a new Léger poll – commissioned by the Bloc Québécois in Ottawa. It was conducted online among 1,003 Quebec respondents from January 17 to 19 – and of which The Canadian Press obtained a copy.

If a general election were held today, the PQ would obtain 34 per cent of support (+three per cent since December), compared to 25 per cent for Premier François Legault’s Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) (+one per cent).

The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) received 15 per cent of voting intentions, Quebec solidaire (QS) 12 per cent, and the Quebec Conservative Party 11 per cent, according to the Léger firm. 

The needle has moved very little over the past year; St-Pierre Plamondon’s small team of four MNAs remains at the top of the polls, more popular than the Legault government, which nevertheless has good hopes of reversing the trend.

At his political party’s pre-sessional caucus in Saint-Sauveur this week, Premier Legault compared the “Trump crisis” to that of COVID-19.

He presented himself as a safe bet, having led Quebec during the pandemic years, and warned that the Quebec economy would be turned upside down if Trump decided to impose 25 per cent customs tariffs. 

Trump’s rise to power is indeed a “challenge” for the opposition in Quebec,  St-Pierre Plamondon acknowledged Thursday in Terrebonne.

He said he feared that all the political issues in Quebec would be overshadowed by the responses that the Legault government would give to the economic threats from the United States.

Another shadow on the horizon for the PQ: support for sovereignty is stagnating at 37 per cent, according to the poll. Legault indicated on Tuesday that he would let the “two old parties,” the PQ and the PLQ, fight it out.

Since this is a non-probability poll, it has no margin of error. As an indication, a probability sample of 1003 respondents would have an assumed margin of error of ±3.09%, 19 times out of 20.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews