In 2018, five months before Quebec voters would go to the polls in a pivotal election, former PQ leader Jean-François Lisée caught reporters at the National Assembly by surprise when he stood at a podium in the foyer and challenged the other party leaders to an English debate. Eight years later, now observing the 2026 election campaign as a columnist and political analyst, Lisée has emerged as an unlikely ally to the province’s anglophones – raising questions about the party leaders’ positions on two issues that have stoked anger and frustration in the English-speaking community, and left many anglophones feeling sidelined: the CAQ’s insistence on French-only voter information cards, and the refusal of three leaders to take part in an English leaders’ debate. In an interview with CTV News, Lisée said he questioned Quebec Liberal Party leader Charles Milliard’s decision, in particular. “I thought it was odd that Mr. Milliard didn’t push for it,” Lisée said. “He said, ‘Well if the others go, I’ll go.’ No, say you’ll go!” When an English news media consortium reached out to the leaders of the five main parties in June, extending an invitation to participate in an English-language televised debate, the Coalition Avenir Quebec and the Parti Québécois declined, while the Conservative Party of Quebec and Québec Solidaire accepted. As for the Liberals, Milliard said he would only join the debate if all five parties participated. ‘Tone matters’ For decades, English-speaking Quebecers have heard a variation of the same promise from different party leaders and premiers. “I want to assure you that my government will be your government,” former CAQ leader Francois Legault said in English, in his 2018 victory speech on election night. Six years earlier, when Pauline Marois brought the PQ to power with a minority government, she also made a point of speaking English in her victory speech, in effort to reassure anglophones. “Don’t worry,” Marois said. “Your rights will be fully protected.” When Christine Frechette took over as leader of the CAQ and became premier this past spring, she followed a similar script. In a speech to a Montreal business crowd in June, Frechette appeared to acknowledge the rocky relationship with the province’s anglophones, under Legault’s leadership. “I’d like to say a word about the importance of the English-speaking community in Quebec. My overarching responsibility to promote and protect French will not change – but tone matters. As the premier of all Quebecers, I hope to bring a different tone to these discussions.” Two weeks later in an interview with CJAD 800, Frechette repeated that “tone matters”, adding “I want to have a positive tone when it comes to English-speaking Quebecers.” By August, in the weeks before the election campaign officially kicked off, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon was also reaching out to anglophones. He wrote an open letter in the National Post, calling the PQ the “party of all Quebecers” and promising that a PQ government would ensure “the rights of the historic English-speaking minority will be fully protected.” “The Parti Québécois will even ensure that the rights currently enjoyed by the English-speaking community are entrenched in the constitution,” he added. It was a message he repeated during the campaign. “Our conception of a country is in full respect of the rights of Quebecers whose mother tongue is English, so there’s no reason not to talk together and make that change together,” Plamondon told reporters after the Radio-Canada leaders’ debate. French-only election documents Lisée, who served as the minister responsible for anglophones under former premier Pauline Marois during a PQ minority mandate, said he was shocked to learn Elections Quebec mailed out French-only election guides and voter information cards during this year’s election campaign – a first. Elections Quebec said it requested an exemption from the CAQ’s expanded language law, known as Bill 96, in order to continue sending documents to voters in English and French – but the request was denied by the French Language minister Jean-François Roberge, and the Commissioner of the French Language, Benoît Dubreuil. Lisée wrote an opinion piece in the francophone daily newspaper Le Devoir, titled « Tirer des roches aux Anglais » – equating the CAQ government’s decision to “throwing rocks at the English”. “I think it’s appalling,” Lisée told CTV News, when asked why he decided to write about the issue. “In the discussion about French and English, I’ve always felt that there were some proposals that were counterproductive and that basically were petty, and that didn’t help French – or certainly not the conviviality between the anglos and francophones.” Liberal leader Charles Millard wrote a letter to Christine Fréchette, pointing to the premier’s commitment to a “change of tone” and calling the decision to refuse an exemption for Elections Quebec “an unjustifiable attack on the voting rights of English-speaking Quebecers.” Questioned by reporters on the campaign trail, Fréchette defended her government’s decision to insist on French-only election documents. “No one is being denied access to information. No one is being denied the right to vote either. The information remains available in English,” said Frechette, referring to the QR code on the documents, directing voters to information in English on the Elections Quebec website. A group of lawyers took the case to court, arguing the unilingual election guides and voter information cards were a violation of the linguistic and democratic rights of the English-speaking minority. A superior court judge sided with the lawyers and ordered Elections Quebec to send out reminder cards in both French and English. Within days, the CAQ announced it would appeal the decision, drawing more criticism. “If there’s a recognition – even [among] sovereigntists – that we have a historic minority that is anglophone that has rights, then you have to act accordingly,” said Lisée. The current PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, called the CAQ government’s appeal a waste of time. “If we form the government on October 6, I don’t think we’ll use resources and time on this one,” he said. “If the pamphlet is in English, it’s a fundamental right to go and vote, so I don’t see the point.”
