Premier Christine Fréchette is scheduled to commence the provincial election campaign by meeting with Quebec’s lieutenant-governor on Thursday morning. The day’s agenda includes a cabinet meeting in Quebec City at 10 a.m. followed by Fréchette’s meeting with Lieutenant-Governor Manon Jeannotte at 10:30 a.m. A news conference hosted by Fréchette will take place at 11 a.m. post-meeting.
To kick off an election campaign in Quebec, the provincial electoral protocol mandates the head of government to request the lieutenant-governor—the King’s representative—to dissolve the National Assembly. The campaign is slated to span 39 days, culminating in the election day on Monday, Oct. 5.
Subsequent to the campaign launch, party leaders will embark on their campaign buses. Notably, this election boasts 127 ridings, an increase from the previous 125, consequently raising the required number of seats for a majority to 64. For the first time since 2018, Quebecers will elect a government not spearheaded by François Legault, who secured consecutive majority governments in 2018 and 2022.
Among the five prominent party leaders, Christine Fréchette, who assumed office as an MNA in 2022 representing the Sanguinet riding on Montreal’s South Shore, succeeded Legault as premier in April after clinching victory in the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) leadership race. Fréchette will contest in her hometown of Trois-Rivières. She will face off against the Parti Québécois’s (PQ) Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who is set to run in the Camille-Laurin riding in eastern Montreal. Charles Milliard, from the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), will contest in Orford in the Eastern Townships, while Éric Duhaime, representing the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ), is vying for a win in Bellechasse in the Chaudière-Appalaches region south of Quebec City. Québec Solidaire’s (QS) Ruba Ghazal aims to secure Montreal’s Mercier riding for the third consecutive election.
Despite the Parti Québécois leading in current polls, there is minimal public interest in a referendum, which the party has pledged to conduct during its initial term.