Quebec Calls October Election as Separatists Lead Polls
Quebec votes October 5. Separatist PQ leads polls but won't seek independence while Trump is president.
Quebec will go to the polls on October 5, Premier Christine Frechette announced Thursday, kicking off a re-election campaign that polls suggest her party is likely to lose.
Frechette's Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ), a right-of-center party that has governed the province since 2018, is trailing the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) in public opinion surveys. Voters appear fatigued with the CAQ after two terms, frustrated by high living costs and a strained healthcare system.
The October 5 date is the latest permitted under Quebec's fixed-date election law.
A PQ victory would return the party to power for the first time in over a decade. The party has long campaigned on holding another referendum on independence from Canada. However, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said last week that his government would not call a vote until U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office in 2029.
Quebec has been hit especially hard by the ongoing trade war with the United States, and Trump's approval ratings in the province are lower than elsewhere in Canada. Plamondon's decision to delay any referendum appears to reflect that political reality.
Quebec has held two previous independence referendums, in 1980 and 1995, both of which failed. Polls conducted over the past two years consistently show a solid majority of Quebecers oppose breaking away from Canada.