After the 2022 provincial election, the Parti Québécois only held three seats in the province’s National Assembly.
That total has since grown nearly twentyfold, after the party won 59 ridings in the latest provincial election.
Here are some of the new faces to keep in mind ahead of Wednesday’s swearing-in ceremony for cabinet ministers, as some of these new MNAs could end up with key roles in the PQ’s minority government.
The lists below are not exhaustive.
1st-time MNAs
Anne Nguyen has a background in business analytics and artificial intelligence. (The Parti Québécois)
Nguyen is the MNA for the Prévost riding, located in the Laurentians.
She’s expected to play a role in shaping this PQ government’s approach to artificial intelligence.
She is a Harvard graduate in business analytics. In 2024, she was named the director of AI for the Conseil de l’innovation, a group that advises the Quebec government on matters related to business and innovation.
Stéphane Handfield served as the PQ’s immigration critic in the last four years, after failing to win the Masson riding in 2022. (Radio-Canada)
Handfield has been an immigration lawyer for 34 years, according to his profile on the PQ’s website.
He is now the MNA for the riding of Masson, which is largely made up of the city of Mascouche, north of Montreal.
He ran unsuccessfully in that riding in the 2022 election.
For the last four years, he has served as the party’s immigration critic.
Stéphane Paquet, is seen here speaking during a news conference on Feb. 26, 2024, when he was president and CEO of Montreal International. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)
With the exception of St-Pierre Plamondon, Paquet is the PQ’s only MNA on the island of Montreal.
He was elected in Pointe-aux-Trembles.
He spent the last 11 years at Montreal International, an agency that promotes investment in the Montreal area. In 2020, he became the company’s president and CEO.
Dieudonné Ella Oyono, seen here in a Radio-Canada studio for an interview in 2019, was elected in Les Plaines. (Coralie Mensa/Radio-Canada)
Dieudonné Ella Oyono, an economist, was elected in the riding of Les Plaines.
He is described on the PQ’s website as a key part in the party’s plan to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses.
He was a PQ candidate in Montreal’s Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne riding in the 2018 election, and also served as the PQ’s president from 2019 to 2021.
In 2024, he became the director of the City of Montreal’s economic development service.
Marie-Claude Sarrazin was elected in the Groulx riding, defeating Eric Girard, the finance minister during the Coalition Avenir Québec’s eight years. (Mathieu Potvin/Radio-Canada)
Marie-Claude Sarrazin was elected in Groulx on Montreal’s North Shore. She defeated Eric Girard, who spent eight years as the finance minister with the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ).
Sarrazin has been a lawyer for nearly 25 years, according to her profile on the party’s website.
She was a prosecutor during the SAAQclic hearings, which analyzed the costly and chaotic rollout of an online platform for the province’s automobile insurance board.
At the federal level, Nantel represented the Longueuil-Saint-Hubert riding as an MP for the NDP between 2011 and 2019. After leaving the party and sitting as an Independent, he unsuccessfully ran for re-election with the Green Party.
Nantel then shifted to provincial politics and joined the PQ. He failed to win the Marie-Victorin seat on Montreal’s South Shore during an April 2022 byelection, and came up short again in that same riding a few months later in the general election.
On Oct. 5, however, Nantel was elected in the Argenteuil riding in the Laurentians.
Back for 2nd stints at the National Assembly
Alain Therrien rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
This is Therrien’s second time representing the Sanguinet riding on Montreal’s South Shore.
He held that seat from 2012 to 2018, before losing it to the Coalition Avenir Québec’s Danielle McCann.
Like Nantel, Therrien has experience in the House of Commons.
He represented the riding of La Prairie-Atateken for the Bloc Québécois between 2019 and 2025.
Nicolas Marceau was Quebec’s finance minister in the Pauline Marois government that was in power between 2012 and 2014. (Mathieu Potvin/Radio-Canada)
In addition to being an MNA from 2009 to 2018 for the Rousseau riding, Marceau was the finance minister between 2012 and 2014 during Pauline Marois’s time as premier.
He was the party’s finance critic from 2014 until 2018.
During the election campaign, Marceau presented the PQ’s financial framework.
Elsie Lefebvre has political experience at both the provincial and municipal level. (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada)
Lefebvre represents the Berthier riding, located in the Lanaudière region.
As a PQ MNA, she represented the Montreal riding of Laurier-Dorion between 2004 and 2007.
From 2009 to 2017, she was a city councillor for the Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension borough. She was recently a columnist and contributor for Quebecor media outlets.
From municipal to provincial politics
After serving two terms as the mayor of Rouyn-Noranda, Diane Dallaire chose not to run for a third one in the 2025 municipal elections.
Less than a year later, she is now the MNA for the Rouyn-Noranda-Témiscamingue riding.
Sévigny won the Richmond riding in the Eastern Townships. From 2009 to 2017, he served as the mayor of Sherbrooke. He was also the president of the Union des municipalités du Québec. He is married to Marie-Claude Bibeau, the current mayor of Sherbrooke and a former Liberal minister under Justin Trudeau.
She spent the last 13 years as the mayor of Sainte-Marie-Salomé, a small town of 1,300 residents in the Lanaudière. She is now the MNA for Joliette.
D’Astous had been the mayor of Amos since 2015. Earlier this month, he was elected in the Abitibi-Ouest riding.
This was his first successful bid to become an MNA after failing to get elected with the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) in 2008, and the CAQ in 2012.