She has also signaled a departure from the style of her predecessor, Fran\u00e7ois Legault, promising a \u201cnew generation\u201d of leadership for a party struggling to find its footing in the polls.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have chosen a woman, a Gen Xer and a unifier of people,\u201d she said in her victory speech on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Those who have followed her career say those attributes are true to her character \u2014 and observers say they’ll be put to the test as she faces the monumental challenge of rebuilding a slumping party before the provincial election on Oct. 5.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776274029_56_default.jpg\")
Christine Fr\u00e9chette, left, and outgoing Premier Francois Legault on Tuesday in Quebec City. During her victory speech, Fr\u00e9chette spoke about her experience as a member of Generation X informed her priorities. (Jacques Boissinot\/The Canadian Press)Starring in \u2018Sept in the City\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cShe’s a very passionate person,\u201d said Caroline Sauriol, a friend who has known Fr\u00e9chette since her 20s. The two met through Force Jeunesse, an advocacy group formed to defend the interests of young workers as benefits were clawed back during the austerity of the 1990s.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has a clear mind on what’s right and what’s equitable and how the society should be functioning,\u201d Sauriol told CBC News, adding that \u201cshe’s a very courageous person, very determined as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sauriol and Fr\u00e9chette were later part of a group of young women professionals known as \u201cSept in the City\u201d \u2014 a nod to Sex and the City \u2014 which also included Dominique Anglade, the former leader of the Quebec Liberals.<\/p>\n
Fr\u00e9chette took longer to enter politics than Anglade but, in Sauriol\u2019s view, it was quite a \u201clinear, meaningful road,\u201d even though it has taken \u201cmany different forms throughout her career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born and raised in Trois-Rivi\u00e8res, Que., Fr\u00e9chette has a lengthy resume that includes leadership roles in economic development and stints on several influential boards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She holds a bachelor\u2019s in business administration from HEC Montr\u00e9al and a master\u2019s in international relations from Universit\u00e9 Laval.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776274030_371_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Who is Quebec\u2019s new premier, Christine Fr\u00e9chette?<\/p>\n
Fr\u00e9chette is the second woman to hold the position of Quebec premier. Here\u2019s how her personal and political history landed her at the helm of the province.<\/p>\n
In 2007, she joined C\u00c9RIUM, a think tank at the Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, working under Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Lis\u00e9e. When Lis\u00e9e became minister of international relations in the Pauline Marois government, Fr\u00e9chette was appointed his deputy chief of staff.<\/p>\n
She ultimately quit that job over the proposed Charter of Values, introduced by Drainville, who was also a Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois (PQ) minister at the time. The charter aimed to ban visible religious symbols for public sector employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While she left the PQ over that move, she has since stated her support for Bill 21, the CAQ\u2019s secularism law, which she views as a more balanced successor.<\/p>\n
Fr\u00e9chette then returned to the economic sector, serving as a director at Montr\u00e9al International and later as president of the Chambre de commerce de l’Est de Montr\u00e9al (CCEM) from 2016 to 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is someone that will listen, and that is willing to get the opinion of others,\u201d Jean-Denis Charest, who succeeded her at the CCEM, said in an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s also known to be good at convincing people to move forward in the direction she believes is the right one.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Not a nationalist firebrand’<\/p>\n
After winning her seat in the Sanguinet riding south of Montreal in 2022, Fr\u00e9chette was appointed minister of immigration. Two years later, she became economy minister \u2014 a post she held until she stepped down to run for the leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the leadership campaign, Fr\u00e9chette presented a more moderate approach to Quebec identity than her rival, Drainville, who took a hard line on immigration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For instance, Fr\u00e9chette said she would temporarily reinstate the cancelled immigration pathway known as the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ) for two years to allow up to 45,000 “PEQ orphans” to settle in the province.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She has also said she wouldn\u2019t force through Bill 1, the CAQ\u2019s controversial proposed constitution, prior to the fall election.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In her victory speech, she listed her top three priorities: reducing financial pressure on families, protecting the economy and restoring confidence in Quebec\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
When asked on Radio-Canada\u2019s Tout un matin whether there was room for nationalism among those priorities, Fr\u00e9chette insisted there was \u2014 pointing to a commitment to extend French language laws to adult education and vocational training.<\/p>\n
![\"wide](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776274030_355_default.jpg\")
Fr\u00e9chette at a news conference earlier this week at the National Assembly. (Jacques Boissinot\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n
She reiterated in that interview that she plans to announce a \u201cbundle of measures” as early as this week to reduce grocery prices and improve access to housing and government services.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Working to reduce the cost of living for families, for Quebecers, will be among my first actions,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cGrocery costs are hitting budgets hard, as are rent and housing costs. These are two sectors where I want to act quickly.”<\/p>\n
However, some observers wonder if a focus on the economy will be enough to overcome the PQ and a resurgent Quebec Liberal Party.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe’s not a nationalist firebrand,\u201d said Francine Pelletier, a journalism professor at Concordia University and the author of Dream Interrupted: The rise and fall of Quebec nationalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe shies away from that kind of identity politics. But what exactly she represents apart from a strong economy \u2014 I think most people in Quebec do not know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been just four years since Christine Fr\u00e9chette took office with the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec. Later today,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":{"0":"post-393750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}