{"id":921419,"date":"2026-10-05T11:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T11:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/921419\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T11:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T11:14:11","slug":"parti-quebecois-leader-still-top-of-polls-as-election-day-nears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/921419\/","title":{"rendered":"Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois leader still top of polls as election day nears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon had his work cut out for him after the 2022 election.<\/p>\n

His party only won three seats and watched as the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec won a second majority government, presenting itself as a \u201cthird way\u201d between federalism and sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Four years later, the leader of the separatist party is poised to bring his party back to power on Oct. 5, setting the table for a third referendum on independence in Quebec.<\/p>\n

The PQ hasn\u2019t been in power since former premier Pauline Marois\u2019 minority government dissolved in 2014.<\/p>\n

Historically known as a social-democrat party whose raison d\u2019\u00eatre was to separate from Canada, the PQ struggled to connect with voters in elections over the next decade.<\/p>\n

However, the party won four more seats in byelections before the legislature was dissolved in August and is now considered the front-runner in a race where the vote is being split among five parties.<\/p>\n

St-Pierre Plamondon won the PQ leadership in 2020 after promising to hold a referendum if the party formed government. Just before this year\u2019s electoral campaign period began, St-Pierre Plamondon said he would wait until American President Donald Trump is out of the White House to do so.<\/p>\n

He said he wanted to \u201cdefang\u201d his Liberal, Conservative and Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec rivals, who insisted that a referendum would only add to the political instability caused by trade tensions with the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople oversell the instability of going and voting on (separation),\u201d St-Pierre Plamondon said during an interview in English on CJAD\u2019s airwaves on Oct. 1, in which he urged Quebecers to give him a majority government.<\/p>\n

The Quebec election is scheduled just two weeks before Alberta holds its own referendum on the possibility of separation.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are going to vote. And nobody thinks there\u2019s any danger in going to vote and being in a democracy,\u201d St-Pierre Plamondon said in the radio interview.<\/p>\n

But while the PQ leader is now an ardent separatist, he once accused the independence movement of having \u201csplit Quebec in two.\u201d He said his experiences as a lawyer and meetings with former PQ politicians led him to change his mind.<\/p>\n

He donated over $2000 to the Liberal Party of Canada between 2004 and 2008. A spokesperson would later say he made the donations during a period when he was a corporate lawyer at Stikeman Elliott, while attending fundraisers tied to his work at the firm.<\/p>\n

He also worked on lawsuits stemming from the federal sponsorship scandal that erupted over a program introduced while former prime minister Jean Chr\u00e9tien was in power. Sometimes describing himself as a \u201cdisappointed federalist,\u201d St-Pierre Plamondon later joined the PQ in 2016 under former cabinet minister and party leader Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Lis\u00e9e.<\/p>\n

He made headlines after the 2022 election, when he refused to swear the oath to the King. The government passed a bill making the oath optional soon after, allowing him to sit at the legislature.<\/p>\n

During his campaign, he once again attacked the British monarchy, calling it a symbol of \u201cdomination by force,\u201d and pledging to defund the office of the lieutenant-governor, which represents the King in Quebec.<\/p>\n

The PQ leader has described himself as \u201cspontaneous,\u201d admitting to sometimes speaking to media without considering possible backlash. Meanwhile his rivals deem him to be \u201chotheaded,\u201d \u201cbelligerent,\u201d and \u201cquarrelsome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The father of three has also said he has found the campaign difficult since it has forced him to be away from his children for days at a time.<\/p>\n

Throughout the campaign, the PQ leader leaned on nationalist sentiment and a desire for change to drum up support from those who were disillusioned after eight years of the governing Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n

He also relied on identity politics and linked \u201cuncontrolled immigration\u201d to problems such as the housing crisis, the decline in the French language, the struggling education system and strain on public services.<\/p>\n

Qu\u00e9bec solidaire co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal compared St-Pierre Plamondon to former premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault, who won two consecutive majority governments by making language, identity and autonomy core governing themes.<\/p>\n

But St-Pierre Plamondon\u2019s detractors did little to stop his momentum during the campaign.<\/p>\n

Polls initially suggested Quebec was heading toward a minority PQ government. But by the end of the campaign, support for the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec seemed to tank, opening the door for the PQ to win a majority due to a fragmented political landscape that could see five parties winning seats on Monday night.<\/p>\n

The PQ leader has also downplayed his plans for a referendum in the last stretch of the campaign, noting that he believes voters will need to decide who they want to trust to lead Quebec.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not totally accurate to say that this election is only about whether we would hold a referendum in three years from now,\u201d he told CJAD. \u201cIt\u2019s about changing or not changing a government that has catastrophic results in many areas of our society and choosing who could do a good job and who could be reliable in terms of what they do and what they say.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n

Add CityNews Montreal as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n

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