How the desire for change and the threat of a referendum are shaping the Quebec election - National Post
Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon arrives at the Noovo leaders' debate in Montreal on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. Photo by Paul Ducharme/Noovo and CraveArticle contentOTTAWA — The Quebec election campaign is already more than halfway done, with polls showing that the Parti Québécois is still in the lead while the incumbent Coalition Avenir Québec’s “Trump bump” thanks to the trade war is slowly fading away.
Still, with a large proportion of Quebecers who remain undecided, it’s no wonder that the leaders of all five political parties were banking heavily on national debates to either solidify their base or attempt to sway voters to go in another direction.
The first two debates, TVA Face-à-Face and Le Grand Débat des Chefs Noovo/Crave, took place Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
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Radio-Canada will hold the third and final debate on September 23.
With PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, CAQ leader Christine Fréchette, Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard, Québec solidaire co-spokeperson Ruba Ghazal and Quebec Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime, the stage was quite crowded.
While Fréchette was attacked on all sides in the first debate, shots were directed to St-Pierre Plamondon, the frontrunner, the second night. But the PQ leader remained calm, his team says, in part because he had a picture of his children right in front of him.
Milliard, still a relatively unknown leader seven months into the job, managed to get in a few zingers about his main opponents, mainly about the debate on separation.
So, what did the public learn during these first two nights? And could any of this move the needle as a very volatile Quebec electorate prepares to go to the polls?
In the TVA Face-à-Face, Fréchette used her opening statement to draw the line between her predecessor and herself.
“I am not François Legault. I am Christine Fréchette, and I bring my own way of doing things,” she said, before following up with a plea to opt for stability and experience amid the “great uncertainty” of the trade war with the United States.
Unsurprisingly, her pitch did not convince her opponents who have all been trying to pin the controversies of the past eight years of the CAQ government on the new premier.
St-Pierre Plamondon even said during Le Grand Débat des Chefs Noovo/Crave that U.S. President Donald Trump isn’t the biggest threat to Quebec.
“The biggest source of instability for the next four years would be another four years of a bad government that squanders public funds recklessly,” he said.
St-Pierre Plamondon has been banking on Quebecers’ appetite for change, and polls are showing that it is a message that is percolating as Trump is less in the news cycle.
A Léger poll published before the first debate showed that more than 60 per cent of Quebecers want a change in government and a new party to govern the province. In comparison, only 16 per cent of respondents said they do not want change.
