A Caquist wave swept almost all of Quebec, leaving little room for opposition parties. In ten years, François Legault’s party will succeed in significantly changing the province’s electoral landscape. Overview region by region.

The coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) won 72% of the 125 elections and was able to send 90 deputies to the National Assembly. The Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) was second with 21 seats, followed by Quebec Solidaire (QS) with 11 seats. Having gained only three seats, the Parti Québécois (PQ) almost completely disappeared from the political arena. With a new leader at the helm, the Quebec Conservative Party (PCQ) hoped to elect multiple MPs, but that plan failed.

This means that the CAQ has 14 more seats than when the National Assembly was dissolved. François Legault’s party lost only one seat, that of Camille-Laurin. While the PLQ lost 6 ridings, the PQ lost 4 and the QS gained another one. If there were four independent MPs at the time of the election – due to resignations and party changes – no independent MP was elected.

The last time a party won more than 90 seats was in the 1980s. Robert Bourassa’s Liberals won 99 seats in 1985, then 92 in 1989.

Both the PLQ and PQ have reached historically low levels of elected officials.

In 2018, 1.5 million Quebecers voted for François Legault’s party. This time almost 1.68 million Quebecers voted for him, or 41% of the votes. When the PCQ failed to elect a deputy, the party still received virtually the same number of votes as the PLQ, QS and the PQ. In fact, the PCQ finished second in 25 constituencies, winning more than 30% of the vote in six of them. The PQ finished second in 44 constituencies, but won over 30% of the vote in only three constituencies.

These results enliven the debate about the reform of the proportional representation system.

Montreal is increasingly turning orange

The CAQ is still shunned by Montreal voters. Indeed, even if the party were to win a strong majority across the province, only two metropolitan constituencies will have a CAQ member (Pointe-aux-Trembles and Anjou-Louis-Riel).

The leader of the PQ, Paul St-Pierre-Plamondon, has taken over the leadership of Camille-Laurin (ex-Bourget) from the hands of the Caquistes and will thus enter the National Assembly.

QS continues its breakthrough east of Saint-Laurent Boulevard, winning Maurice-Richard’s race. The party also won the constituency of Verdun in the south of the metropolis, which had been held by the Liberals since the late 1930s. Solidarity Alejandra Zaga Mendez won by less than 500 votes.

While the east end of the city turns orange, West Island Montreal remains a liberal stronghold. Chief Dominique Anglade won the Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne race, albeit at the lowest odds (36%) since 1994.

We also observe that the PLQ’s vote share has declined by more than 10% in these liberal Montreal strongholds.

The CAQ is consolidating its influence around Montreal

In Laval, the situation is the opposite of 2018. The avenir Québec coalition has gone from one to four MPs. The PLQ retains only Chomedey and Mille-Îles.

The CAQ also took over the Montérégie. The PLQ has only two seats in this region, namely Vaudreuil and La Pinière. Vaudreuil was won by the Liberals by just a few votes ahead of the CAQ. The struggle was also hot in Laporte, where the CAQ has been delighting this liberal stronghold since 1981.

The Parti Québécois also lost Joliette, their only riding arena near Greater Montreal. CAQ’s François St-Louis replaces PQ Véronique Hivon, who announced before the elections that she would no longer stand as a candidate.

QS resists in Quebec, PCQ fails to break through in Beauce

In the Capitale-Nationale, Québec Solidaire managed to keep its two Ridings (Taschereau and Jean-Lesage), who remain completely surrounded by the CAQ.

Former National Option head Sol Zanetti, who joined QS in 2017, thus withstood the CAQ attack. Étienne Grandmont takes over the solidarity seat from Catherine Dorion, who has chosen not to represent herself.

In Chauveau, Conservative leader Éric Duhaime failed to oust CAQ MP Sylvain Lévesque. In that constituency, which neither party won, he still garnered more than 30% of the vote. Since the 2000s, it has brought to power members of the PLQ, the PQ, the ADQ, and the CAQ. The PCQ came second in 14 constituencies in this region.

The CAQ retains Jean-Talon’s seat, which it stole from the Liberals in a December 2019 by-election.

The Ridings of Beauce-Sud and Beauce-North, who were expected to be among the first to move to the PCQ camp, eventually opted for the CAQ.

The battle was particularly tough in Beauce-Nord, where the Conservative candidate finished second with 43.4% of the vote, behind the CAQ candidate, who won 44.5% of the vote. About 200 votes separated the two candidates. The losing curator called for a nightly recount. The PCQ finished second in several races around Beauce, notably Lotbinière-Frontenac, Bellechasse, Arthabaska, Drummond–Bois-Franc and Mégantic.

The PQ retains some gains in eastern Quebec

The Îles-de-la-Madeleine and Matane-Matapédia are the only two races to have won the PQ, aside from the leader’s race in Montreal. Matane voted almost 70% for the PQ, while 46% of the Madelinots voted for the Parti Québécois. The Îles-de-la-Madeleine have been alternating between the PQ and the PLQ since 2007.

The leadership of Sylvain Roy (Bonaventure), who ended his term as an independent MP after leaving the PQ Group in June 2021, passed easily into the hands of the CAQ.

QS has a foothold in Estrie

In Estrie, former Mayor of Longueuil Caroline Saint-Hilaire (CAQ) failed to oust outgoing MP Christine Labrie (QS) in Sherbrooke, despite an uphill battle.

From 1998 to 2012, this equestrian show was run by Liberal Jean Charest and changed hands three times in the last three elections.

In Saint-François, Magog, Richmond, Brome-Missisquoi and Granby, QS came second, winning between 15% and 30% of the vote.

QS loses Rouyn-Noranda

Solidarity Émilise Lessard-Therrien, outgoing MP for Rouyn-Noranda-Témiscamingue, in Abitibi, lost her seat, which she narrowly won in 2018. CAQ player Daniel Bernard will replace her.

In Abitibi-Est and Gatineau, the Liberal Party took second place, but well behind the CAQ.

The Pontiac faction, which has been a Liberal stronghold since the 1970s, re-elected a PLQ MP.

From 1998 to 2022: an electoral map in motion

Since 1994 the Quebec map has undergone significant changes. In 25 years, three parties—the PQ, the PLQ, and the CAQ—came to power, each dominating the Quebec electoral landscape.

In 2007, the ADQ became the official opposition with 41 seats. Two elections later, this party is no longer represented in the National Assembly. Also in 2022, PQ and PLQ have virtually disappeared from most regions of Quebec.

Since François Legault won the first CAQ contest in 2008, he has managed to persuade more and more Quebecers to vote for his party.

In 2014, 14 Ridings voted more than 50% for the PLQ and 27 voted more than 40%. In 2022, 8 constituencies voted over 50% and 14 voted over 40%.

For many years, several liberal factions voted in excess of 70% for the PLQ. Some Liberal strongholds, such as D’Arcy-McGee and Robert-Baldwin, have even voted more than 80% for the PLQ in the past.

This time, however, the PLQ won its Liberal strongholds with 60% or less of the vote. In D’Arcy-McGee, only half of voters voted for the PLQ, while 22% voted for the PCQ.

A stable participation rate

Voter turnout in 2022 (around 66.05%) is practically the same as in the last election (66.5%). In 1976, Quebecers had the highest participation rate, with a participation rate of over 85%. The Quebecers had then chosen the PQ René Lévesque.

About 56,000 ballots were rejected, representing just over 1% of the approximately 4,163,000 ballots counted.

Melanie Meloche Holubowski Journalist, Melanie Julien desk manager, Franz Lamontagne to name, Andre Guimaraes And Mathieu St Laurent Developer, Danielle Jazzar language reviewer and Martin Roy coordinator