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Christine Fr\u00e9chette will become Quebec\u2019s next premier after winning the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec leadership race on Sunday, taking over the governing party only months before the next election. <\/p>\n
Fr\u00e9chette replaces Fran\u00e7ois Legault, who announced his intention to step down in January with the party slumping in the polls. <\/p>\n
The 55-year-old former business executive beat out Bernard Drainville, the only other candidate in the race, with 58 per cent of the vote. <\/p>\n
She has a challenging task ahead. <\/p>\n
“It’s spring. Spring is a time of renewal,” she told party members in Drummondville, Que., on Sunday, shortly after her victory was announced. <\/p>\n
“Today we are moving to a new stage. You have voted for another style of leadership so that a new generation can lead Quebec.” <\/p>\n
Considered the frontrunner in the race, Fr\u00e9chette positioned herself as a more moderate candidate in comparison to Drainville. <\/p>\n
Fr\u00e9chette focused her campaign on growing the economy and helping Quebecers deal with the rising cost of living. She reiterated those priorities during her acceptance speech.<\/p>\n
Drainville, for his part, put an emphasis on identity issues and promised to adopt a stricter immigration policy. He was previously a member of the rival Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, where he championed\u00a0the party’s so-called charter of values<\/a>. <\/p>\n Fr\u00e9chette previously worked in economic development, as well as behind the scenes with the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, before winning a seat with the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec (CAQ) in 2022. <\/p>\n She served as Quebec’s immigration minister prior to taking over as minister of economy, innovation and energy in 2024. <\/p>\n Pivotal time for party<\/p>\n The leadership race was a first for the party, which was founded by Legault in 2011. More than 20,500 CAQ members were eligible to vote and 77 per cent of them cast a ballot.<\/p>\n Legault led his party to two consecutive majority governments starting in 2018, but opted to resign in early 2026 after persistently low poll numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n He had fallen out of favour after a series of controversies, including the failed investment into the Northvolt battery plant<\/a> and the costly, botched launch of SAAQClic<\/a> \u2014 the province’s online platform for Quebec’s automobile insurance board. <\/p>\n Daniel B\u00e9land, a political science professor and director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, said the leadership change comes at a pivotal time for the party and the first few weeks of Fr\u00e9chette’s tenure will be key.<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenge the new CAQ leader is facing is really tremendous because of the position of the party in the polls and because this person will only be the second leader of that party in its history,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n WATCH | Quebec’s incoming premier promises a new leadership style: Quebec\u2019s next premier promises new style of leadership<\/p>\n After winning the CAQ leadership race, Christine Fr\u00e9chette says she wants to bring people together. But the road ahead will be difficult, with her party slumping in the polls only months from an election.<\/p>\n The provincial election is scheduled for Oct. 5 \u2014 though the CAQ could decide to call an election sooner.\u00a0<\/p>\n That isn\u2019t likely, given that opinion polls show the party far behind the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois and Liberals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Legault said he will stay on as an MNA until the end of the term, but plans on spending more time in his home riding of L\u2019Assomption rather than the National Assembly.<\/p>\n New generation<\/p>\n In her speech, Fr\u00e9chette spoke of her experience as a member of Generation X, growing up during a turbulent time in Quebec. <\/p>\n A period, she said, that was marked by two referendums, failed negotiations with the federal government and high unemployment, especially among youth.<\/p>\n She said it created “a resilient and pragmatic generation, able to transform challenges into concrete solutions.”<\/p>\n She added: “Today, it\u2019s that experience, that balance, and that ability to act that I want to put to the service of Quebecers.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-603076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776041171_859_default.jpg\")
Christine Fr\u00e9chette speaks with Bernard Drainville after winning the leadership race. (Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776041172_993_default.jpg\")
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