2026 Quebec Provincial Election

Quebec's general election took place on Monday, October 5, 2026, the date set by the province's fixed-date election law. On August 27, Premier Christine Fréchette met Lieutenant-Governor Manon Jeannotte and the National Assembly was dissolved, beginning a 39-day campaign. Fréchette had led the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) since April, after François Legault announced in January, amid poor polling numbers, that he would step down. The CAQ held 79 seats at dissolution, the Parti Québécois (PQ) seven and the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) one.

The election was held on a new map of 127 ridings, two more than in 2022: the National Assembly adopted it by law on June 12, 2026, keeping a riding in Gaspésie and one in eastern Montreal that the Commission de la représentation électorale's 2023 map had eliminated. There were 908 candidates, against 880 in 2022. Turnout was 66.93%, with 4,347,745 ballots cast by 6,495,984 registered electors, up from 66.15% in 2022.

Results

The Parti Québécois won 60 of the 127 seats with 28.02% of the vote, up from three seats and 14.61% in 2022. It fell four seats short of the 64 needed for a majority and formed a minority government, returning to office for the first time since 2014. The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) won 39 seats with 24.23%, up from 21 seats and 14.37%, and remained the Official Opposition. The Conservatives won 19 seats with 20.66%, having won none with 12.91% in 2022. Québec solidaire (QS) won nine seats with 12.42%, against 11 seats and 15.43% in 2022. The CAQ, which had won 90 seats with 40.98% in 2022, won no seats, with 572,040 votes (13.35%).

These are the final results, after judicial recounts in two ridings. At the official addition of the votes, the Liberal candidate in Vachon led by 10 votes; the recount gave the riding to the PQ by three, changing the standings from 59 PQ and 40 Liberal seats to 60 and 39. The PQ won 47.2% of the seats with 28.0% of the vote; it needed 20,006 votes for each seat it won, against 46,597 for the Conservatives and 59,124 for Québec solidaire.

The Liberals won 19 of the 27 ridings on the Island of Montreal, all six in Laval and four of the five in the Outaouais. The Conservatives won eight of the 11 in the Capitale-Nationale and all eight that lie wholly or partly in Chaudière-Appalaches. Québec solidaire won six ridings on the Island of Montreal, two in the Capitale-Nationale and Sherbrooke. The PQ won every riding in the Laurentides, Lanaudière, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine and 13 of the 20 wholly in Montérégie, but only two on the Island of Montreal.

Party Leaders

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon (PQ), a lawyer, finished fourth in the 2016 PQ leadership race and won the leadership on October 9, 2020, with 56.02% on the third ballot. He won Camille-Laurin in 2022, one of three PQ seats; four by-election wins had raised the caucus to seven by dissolution. He pledged a sovereignty referendum in his first term, but not before Donald Trump's term as U.S. president ends in January 2029, and said the commitment would stand in a minority or a majority. He was re-elected in Camille-Laurin with 39.66% of the vote, 5,423 votes ahead of the Liberal candidate, and was sworn in as Quebec's 34th premier on October 21.

Charles Milliard (PLQ), born in Lévis in 1979, is a pharmacist who became an executive of the Uniprix pharmacy chain and, in 2020, president and CEO of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec. He finished second to Pablo Rodriguez in the June 2025 leadership vote, with 47.7% of the points on the second ballot. After Rodriguez resigned in December 2025 amid allegations concerning his leadership campaign, Milliard was acclaimed leader on February 13, 2026; he had never been an MNA or MP. His priorities were the economy, public services, the regions, culture and housing. He won Orford with 37.80% of the vote, 4,416 votes ahead of the PQ candidate.

Éric Duhaime (PCQ) was born in Montreal and grew up in Laval. He worked for the Bloc Québécois and Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day, ran for the Action démocratique du Québec in 2003, and later worked as a talk-radio host, columnist and author. He became Conservative leader on April 17, 2021, with nearly 96% of the vote, then lost in Chauveau in 2022 and in the Arthabaska by-election in 2025. In 2026 he promised large tax cuts and asked voters to give his party the balance of power in a minority legislature to block a referendum. He won Bellechasse with 63.84% of the vote; his margin of 17,221 votes over the PQ was the second-largest in the province.

Ruba Ghazal and Sol Zanetti (QS) share Québec solidaire's leadership as co-spokespersons; Ghazal was its candidate for premier and took part in the debates. Ghazal, born in Lebanon in 1977, came to Quebec at age 10 and worked in environment and workplace health and safety at companies including Bombardier Aerospace. A founding member of the party, she has represented Mercier since 2018, became co-spokesperson in November 2024 and was re-elected with 59.20% of the vote. Zanetti, a philosophy teacher who led Option nationale from 2013 to 2017, has represented Jean-Lesage since 2018. He became co-spokesperson in November 2025 and held Jean-Lesage by 3,657 votes over the Conservative candidate.

Christine Fréchette (CAQ) was born in Trois-Rivières in 1970. She worked in PQ minister Jean-François Lisée's office from 2012 to 2014, including as deputy chief of staff, and was president and CEO of the Chambre de commerce de l'Est de Montréal from 2016 to 2021. Elected in Sanguinet in 2022, she served as minister of immigration and then of the economy, innovation and energy. She won the CAQ leadership over Bernard Drainville on April 12, 2026, with 57.9% of the vote, and was sworn in as premier on April 15. She campaigned on steering the economy through the U.S. trade war and warned against a referendum. She finished second in Trois-Rivières, 499 votes behind the PQ's Jean Pellerin. On October 6 she resigned as CAQ leader and announced she was leaving politics.

Campaign Issues

The campaign opened days after a new round of U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods took effect, and Fréchette named Donald Trump her principal opponent. In a late-September Léger poll, the cost of living and housing led the issues that respondents said could influence their vote (53%), followed by improving public services (46%).

The PQ promised to set aside $130 million for a referendum. The CAQ, the Liberals and the Conservatives opposed holding one, and Fréchette said in the last debate that there would be no referendum, neither now nor later. Milliard presented the Liberals as the only federalist party in the campaign, and Québec solidaire proposed a constituent assembly, in consultation with First Nations and Inuit, as a first step toward sovereignty.

CBC's analysis of the costed platforms found modest spending increases from the CAQ and the Liberals, a net-neutral budget from the PQ, major increases from Québec solidaire paid for by higher taxes, including a new tax on assets over $25 million, and deep spending cuts from the Conservatives to pay for large income and corporate tax reductions.

Against a cap of 45,000 permanent immigrants a year, the PQ proposed about 35,000 and Québec solidaire 70,000. The PQ would extend the Charter of the French Language to CEGEPs; the CAQ would extend it to adult and vocational education centres. The PQ would abolish the Santé Québec agency, and the CAQ promised $1 billion over four years for home care.

The five leaders met in three French-language debates, on TVA on September 15, Noovo on September 16 and Radio-Canada on September 23. The CAQ and the PQ declined an English-language debate. Fréchette opened the first debate by saying she was not François Legault. Léger had the CAQ at 24% at the end of August and at 14%, in fourth place, in its poll published on October 3; over the same period the Conservatives rose from 15% to 20%, while the PQ stayed at 29% to 30%.

Notable Outcomes

All 43 outgoing CAQ members who ran again were defeated, among them Fréchette, Simon Jolin-Barrette in Borduas, Drainville in Lévis, outgoing finance minister Eric Girard in Groulx and outgoing health minister Sonia Bélanger in Prévost. The CAQ finished second in 19 ridings; its highest share was 33.34% in Jonquière, and Fréchette's 499-vote deficit in Trois-Rivières was its narrowest loss.

Vachon was the first riding since Gaspé in 2018 where a judicial recount changed the winner: the PQ's Stephan Fogaing finished three votes ahead of the Liberal Affine Lwalalika. In Champlain, the recount reduced the Conservative Adriana Szalontai's margin over the PQ from 191 votes to 186. Five ridings were decided by less than one percentage point. Liberal candidates defeated two Québec solidaire incumbents, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard in Saint-Henri—Sainte-Anne by 275 votes and Alejandra Zaga Mendez in Verdun by 710. Two PQ incumbents lost: Pascal Paradis in Jean-Talon, to the Liberals, and Alex Boissonneault in Arthabaska-L'Érable, to the Conservatives. The widest margin was in Jacques-Cartier, where Liberal Gregory Kelley won 73.21%.