Premier Christine Fréchette is scheduled to kick off Quebec’s provincial election campaign by meeting with Lieutenant-Governor Manon Jeannotte on Thursday morning. The day will begin with a cabinet meeting in Quebec City at 10 a.m., followed by Fréchette’s meeting with Jeannotte at 10:30 a.m. A news conference is set to take place at 11 a.m. following the meeting.
In Quebec, to officially start an election campaign, the head of the government must request the lieutenant-governor, who represents the King, to dissolve the National Assembly. The campaign period will span 39 days, with the election day slated for Monday, October 5th.
After the campaign launch, party leaders will embark on their campaign buses, with this election featuring 127 ridings instead of the usual 125. This adjustment raises the majority seat requirement to 64 seats, up from 63.
For the first time since 2018, Quebecers will elect a government not led by François Legault, who secured consecutive majority governments in 2018 and 2022. Christine Fréchette, who took over as premier in April after winning the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) leadership race, will represent the CAQ in her hometown of Trois-Rivières.
Fréchette will face off against Parti Québécois’s (PQ) Paul St-Pierre Plamondon in the Camille-Laurin riding, while Charles Milliard of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) is running in Orford. Éric Duhaime of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) is contesting Bellechasse, and Québec Solidaire’s (QS) Ruba Ghazal aims to secure Montreal’s Mercier riding for the third consecutive election.
Despite leading in the polls, PQ has encountered disinterest from Quebecers regarding a referendum, a promise the party intends to fulfill during its initial term.