Quebec votes 2026: Parties look to secure gains as election campaign enters final stretch

With six days until Quebecers head to the polls on Oct. 5, the Quebec Liberals were campaigning in Montreal, trying to turn their recent momentum into seats.

The latest Léger polling puts the Parti Québébois at 30 per cent in voter intention, with the Liberals not far behind at 26 per cent.

“They really have to play defence from now, especially until voting day on October 5,” political analyst Daniel Tran said of the Liberals. “They have to secure a lot of votes. They have to secure ridings that are possibly pivotal.”

According to Tran, four out of eight pivotal ridings are in the Montreal region: Maurice-Richard, Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne, Laurier-Dorion and Verdun. He believes the Liberals could jump from 21 seats after the 2022 election to around 35 or 37 this time around.

Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard made a pitch to voters who don’t want a vote on separation.

“If people actually want change and do not want a referendum, which is what we have been hearing from all the polls in the past two years, they need to come back home, if I may say, and vote for the PLQ,” Milliard said.

With the PQ still leading, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon says time is also running short for his party to make its case to voters.

“We’ll probably start doing two announcements per day because the list of things we want to clarify with voters, just days before the election, is under pressure with so little time left,” the PQ leader said.

CAQ Leader Christine Fréchette, whose party slipped into fourth place in voter intention behind the Quebec Conservatives – per the latest polling – says Quebecers have been telling her they want change.

“I know Quebecers want change. They’ve been telling us that for a long time. Between now and election day, I’m asking them to decide what kind of change they want,” she said.

Ruba Ghazal, the co-spokesperson for Québec solidare, asked voters not to vote strategically, feeling that could take votes away from her party.

“Believe in yourself and vote with your heart, vote with your conviction,” Ghazal said.

Affordability top of mind

Tran believes the vote will come down to who is going to best embody change, and who voters feel “can bring those changes to help, especially with the high cost of living.”

That’s exactly what drove one Montrealer to the polls for advance voting in the Maurice-Richard on Tuesday. He told CityNews he would vote Conservative.

“Everything costs too much: the gas, the food, cigarettes, beers. It’s too much,” he said.

About 1.5 million Quebecers had already cast their vote as of Monday night, after a few days of early voting, advance voting and on-campus voting.

Susana Ponce, who immigrated to Montreal 50 years ago, has also already cast her ballot.

“Many people have lost their dignity lately: no housing, not much food, not many jobs,” she told CityNews. “And yet there is anti-immigration rhetoric, even though we immigrants are truly the foundation of social development in Quebec.”

Selma Faraj is among the eligible Quebec voters who remains undecided, with just a few days to go.

“Québec solidaire and the Liberals for sure,” Faraj said. “The other three, I don’t think I relate to them enough. So it would be between those two.

“It’s your duty as a citizen. I try to push everyone around me to go vote. So yeah, I think it’s very important because they represent us.”