‘Never an easy run’: Quebec Liberal Party momentum stalled in crisis going into 2026, analyst says
Posted December 12, 2025 2:39 pm.
Last Updated December 12, 2025 3:41 pm.
The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) has been in some hot water for the last couple of weeks, and while their leader is calling for unity, others in his party are calling for him to step down.
CityNews spoke with political analyst Karim Boulos to delve deeper into the end of the National Assembly session and the crisis surrounding the PLQ.
In recent weeks, you’ve had multiple former Liberal MNAs, and also former Liberal Ministers call for leader Pablo Rodriguez to resign. How do you think that spells out his future as the leader of the Quebec Liberal Party?
“I think the Liberals were on an uphill climb. They were doing quite well through the summer and the fall, thanks to Mr. Rodriguez and thanks to the work of the grassroots movement of the Liberal Party. And that’s completely halted. In fact, it’s now gone in the opposite direction. So I believe what the ministers are saying and what his cabinet is saying is that it’s time for the distraction to end. And so he’s stepped aside for a while, stepped down.”
“We have to also remember that not everybody voted for Mr. Rodriguez as leader. So clearly some of Mr. Millard’s supporters or even other supporters would like to see the noise reduce and come back to some of the messaging that was actually quite effective over the course of the summer and the fall. I think it’s a normal reaction. People want to see the momentum continue. “
“And right now, whether it be UPAC, whether it be the allegations of Madame Risky and Madame Hinse, it’s certainly acting like an anchor on the progress that the Liberals had been making.”
Rodriguez has said that the PLQ is the only credible option for Quebecers. Do you think that is connecting with voters, and how do you think that sets up the Liberals going into 2026?
“The criticism of Mr. Rodriguez is he associates credible with federal. And so he’s saying that we’re the only credible option for maintaining a strong unified Canada while having Quebec play a major role in that unification. So I think that his detractors, his opponents are seeing him as a pro-Carney, pro-federal mouthpiece. And I think that’s hurting him.”
“That’s what the PQ has been using. That’s what Quebec Solidaire has been using. And the CAQ clearly has said that there’s too much of a mess within the Liberal Party for them to be a truly viable option. But I can understand Mr. Rodriguez saying that they are the established party, the longest standing party, great finances, great grassroots potential movement. They built up Quebec that we know, modern Quebec as we know it. And so he’s trying to leverage some of the past successes of the Liberal Party to try to sort of stem the tide.”
Do you think this crisis with the Liberals has actually been taken advantage of by other parties in Quebec?
“Well, the PQ has had the most to gain from this. They continued their meteoric rise. At one point the Liberals were only 11 points behind the Parti Québécois. And that unfortunately is now gone. And so I am seeing that the Parti Québécois is leveraging. In fact, Mr. Saint-Pierre Plamondon has doubled down on some issues, attacking the cultural sector, which typically indicates a little bit of overconfidence, if you will. And so I think that in some aspects it has helped the other parties.”
“Quebec Solidaire hasn’t gained much. The CAQ is still in freefall. People have lost faith in Mr. Legault’s leadership. So really the winners here are the Parti Québécois.”
For a long time, before the new year, we’ve been saying that the election is in a year, the election is in a year. Now we’re actually going into 2026 when the election is only in a few months. How do you think the PLQ is poised going into this year?
“Well, they have to get through this investigation quickly. They have to get into clearing whatever names may have been tarnished through this process. We’re not sure at this point how long the UPAC investigation is going to last.”
“We don’t know what’s going to happen with Madame Hinse and Madame Rizqy. So I think the sooner they can overcome this. And if Mr. Rodriguez’s claims are substantiated, whereby he did nothing wrong, and there were no vote-buying schemes, or there were no MNAs playing any strange games, well then, they’ll try to pick up where they left off with six months less time to do it. So the timing isn’t great. It was never going to be an easy run for Mr. Rodriguez. That was known.”
“The key now is to make sure that he has a decent showing. Once all this is over, if he is found to be as clean and transparent as he claims, then I believe that voter confidence will be in part restored in the Liberal Party. And then he’s going to have to spend the winter and the spring, and summer working very, very hard.
“But I think the damage, sometimes the accusation is as bad as being condemned. And so I think the accusation is hurting Mr. Rodriguez. It’s hurting the Liberal Party because there’s that remnants of the federal 1995 referendum tampering, as is said by many nationalists in Quebec. So I think there’s a feeling that maybe Mr. Rodriguez is not the right person for the job. And that kind of an accusation and that kind of damage is very hard to overcome. So it’ll really come down to what UPAC says and what the independent investigators find. And hopefully for their sake that they can then make a recovery in the beginning of the year.”
