The five major parties are out campaigning as the Quebec election approaches. Voters are set to go to the polls on Oct. 5. Key details: The leaders Follow along for the latest updates: PQ leads in latest poll; CAQ, PLQ follow behind The Parti Québécois (PQ) is leading the way, according to a new Pallas Data poll released Monday, with the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) climbing into second place. Contrarily, the Quebec Liberals (PLQ) have lost a third of the support they held in May. “The Quebec election has started, and the CAQ is finding new signs of life as the Trump tariff threats begin to take hold,” said Dr. Joseph Angolano, Founder and CEO of Pallas Data. Among decided and leaning voters, the survey found that the PQ, under leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, holds 29 per cent of support - the same as the last poll in May. The CAQ and Christine Fréchette have 24 per cent (+5 per cent), the Liberals with Charles Milliard have 22 per cent (-6 per cent), the Conservatives with Éric Duhaime have 16 per cent (+2 per cent), and Québec solidaire under Ruba Ghazal has nine per cent (+1 per cent). “If the election were held today, this would be a PQ minority government, and one of the most fractured National Assemblies in Quebec’s history,” Angolano noted. ”The Liberals would still pick up some seats, the Conservatives would establish a beachhead in the Quebec City region, and the CAQ would be saved from oblivion.” CAQ recovery concentrated in suburbs and regions In Greater Montreal, the CAQ has a29 per cent support rate, nearly equal with the PQ’s 28 per cent and well ahead of the Liberals’ 17 per cent. In the regions, the CAQ sits at 23 per cent. However, on the Island of Montreal, the Liberals’ strongest ground, the CAQ remains a distant fourth at nine per cent. Meanwhile, the Conservatives’ best result is in Quebec City, where Duhaime leads with 30 per cent, ahead of the PQ’s 25 per cent and the CAQ’s 22 per cent; the PLQ falls to single digits at eight per cent. The PCQ, however, has the widest gender gap of any party, drawing 22 per cent of the male vote and eight per cent of the female vote. Age splits in the electorate The poll found that voters aged 65 and older support the CAQ at 34 per cent, ahead of the PQ at 31 per cent. Voters aged 18 to 34 favour the PQ at 29 per cent, with QS drawing its strongest result of any age group at 17 per cent, compared with just two per cent among seniors. “The same dynamic that saved the federal Liberals last year might be developing here in Quebec,” Angolano said. Best leader for the tariff crisis Asked which party leader would be best placed to guide Quebec through tariff threats from the United States, the results were as follows: Methodology Pallas Data surveyed 1,108 adults aged 18 or older living in Quebec on August 29, 2026, using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) telephone interviews conducted by landline and cellphone. Results were weighted using 2021 Census demographic data intended to represent Quebec’s adult population. The margin of error is +/- 2.9 per cent at a 95 per cent confidence level. - Rachel Lau, CTV News Montreal digital journalist PQ promises major bureaucracy overhaul, efficiency secretariat A Parti Québécois government would undertake a major overhaul of “waste and bureaucracy” and reduce public-sector compensation costs by 2.5 per cent over three years. At a news conference in Sherbrooke on Monday, PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon outlined his plan, which has four main components. READ MORE: Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon brings party back from the brink If elected, the PQ would also create a Secretariat for Government Efficiency and Regulatory Relief, which would report to the Treasury Board. The secretariat would be tasked with reviewing all regulations, programs, procedures and standards in place in Quebec.On Monday, St-Pierre Plamondon also reiterated his promise to create a parliamentary budget officer position within the Office of the Auditor General. - The Canadian Press Liberals’ hands tied on spending promises: Milliard Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard says his hands are tied when it comes to election promises involving new spending, given the current state of public finances. “I’m not going to loosen the purse strings if the gold coins are falling out,” he said Monday at a news conference in Beloeil. “The state of public finances right now makes it impossible for all sensible political parties to have 150 pages of promises in this election campaign.” Milliard said Quebecers are “ready to be told the truth” and “don’t want to live in a world of unicorns and rainbows.” “We have a difficult economic situation. We have a tariff war weighing on us. We have labour challenges,” he said. Milliard blamed the Coalition Avenir Québec government for accumulated deficits during its years in power. The financial framework presented by the CAQ on Sunday included more than $9 billion in promises and a shortfall of nearly $6 billion that must be addressed. Despite this, CAQ Leader Christine Fréchette said she remains committed to returning the province to a balanced budget by 2029-30. The cost of the Liberals’ election commitments is not yet known. Milliard said everything will be laid out in the party’s financial framework, which will be presented during the election campaign. - The Canadian Press 100,000 new homes annually, pledge Liberals Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard said he wants to address the housing crisis and reach a goal of building 100,000 new homes annually, with the help of prefabricated construction. The Liberals are proposing “setting a target of 50 per cent of housing built with financing from the Société d’habitation du Québec (SHQ) being constructed using prefabricated methods.” The party said it also wants to establish an interest-free loan program through Investissement Québec to help companies involved in prefabricated construction modernize their operations. Milliard said a Liberal government would also work with municipalities that are slower to issue permits to help them speed up the process. The Liberals also propose deferring capital gains taxes for Quebec real estate investors “when they reinvest their profits in the construction of new housing.” “The deferral will be allowed up to $1 million,” the party said, adding it also wants to train more workers in the construction industry. It noted: “A Liberal government will create a Quebec housing observatory to collect independent data on housing in Quebec so that all available data can be accessed in real time in one place. This tool will help better guide government decisions on housing. - The Canadian Press. CAQ reaching out to doctors The Coalition Avenir Québec is changing its tune a little over a year after blocking doctors from working in the private sector. Monday, CAQ Leader Christine Fréchette said she would allow doctors to practice in both the public and private sectors without having to withdraw from the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ). She said she intends to fund these health care measures by reducing Santé Québec’s administrative expenses by two per cent, resulting in $1 billion in savings from the agency’s $48 billion budget. In April 2025, the CAQ government passed a law restricting private practice through a series of constraints imposed on physicians. Fréchette is now arguing that, after analyzing health care systems around the world, “those that rank among the highest-performing allow for a presence in both the public and private sectors.” The CAQ leader acknowledged that, amongst Quebecers, “there’s always one word that comes up: wait times.” She refused to say that the law passed in 2025 by then-health minister Christian Dubé was a mistake, noting that “we’re doing things differently going forward.” The CAQ said it is “opening a dialogue” with doctors to allow for a “mixed practice,” where they could work in both sectors. However, they would be required to maintain “an adequate presence in the public sector.” This would allow certain procedures to be performed in specialized clinics, “freeing up more capacity in hospitals for serious, urgent, or complex cases,” according to the CAQ. - The Canadian Press. CAQ wants to shorten health care wait times The CAQ said Monday it wants to implement a series of measures to shorten wait times in health care. It proposed, among other things, redirecting patients waiting six months or more in the public system to other regions. In orthopedic and plastic surgery cases, for example, patients could be referred to the private sector after a nine-month wait. The CAQ said it also wants to increase the use of private providers for medical imaging to reduce wait times by processing an additional 100,000 requests per year at a cost of $40 million. In addition, the CAQ said it wants to train more doctors in regional areas through the Universités du Québec network, costing $20 million. The CAQ said it would also expedite expanding the responsibilities of nurses and establishing a professional order for paramedical technicians. - The Canadian Press. Québec Solidaire pledges to cut dropout rate in half Québec Solidaire says it wants to cut high school dropout rates in half and end the “three-tier school system.” At a press conference in Gatineau on Monday morning, party spokesperson Ruba Ghazal promised to invest $340 million to “restore the prestige of public schools” and cut the dropout rate in half. To do so, the party said it plans to hire 1,500 support staff, 500 additional professionals and create “a common school network that would include private schools willing to stop selecting students based on grades and tuition fees in exchange for 100 per cent funding.” Private schools that refuse the conditions would lose their funding. Québec Solidaire said it also plans to “protect school budgets to ensure their quality, notably by establishing an anti-austerity shield and guaranteeing budgets for textbook purchases and field trips.” According to QS, school dropouts cost the government $14 billion each year. “We cannot accept that students’ chances of success depend on the school they attend or their parents’ financial means,” said Ghazal. “It is possible to have a public school system that makes us proud.” - The Canadian Press. Speaking English in school hallways Québec Solidaire spokesperson Ruba Ghazal rejected the Parti Québécois’ proposal to launch a survey on the language young people speak socially in schools in Laval and Montreal. On Sunday, PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said he wanted to examine whether there is “any discomfort or difficulty using French in school hallways.” Ghazal responded that she was “convinced that the children of Bill 101 will ensure the protection of the French language” and “this involves conveying our love for the language to them” through cultural outings, television shows and songs. “That’s what I want to give students — not monitors in the classrooms,” she said, noting that she learned to love the French language by watching Passe-Partout and listening to Félix Leclerc. - The Canadian Press. Fréchette ‘angry’ about new I.T. scandal CAQ Leader Christine Fréchette says she was “angry” to hear about yet another scandal involving information technology (I.T.) contracts, saying such issues tarnish the record of the CAQ. The digital transformation of the province’s health care system is currently costing nearly $500 million over three years to maintain aging human resources systems, revealed Quebecor media outlets on Monday. In 2022, Quebec had budgeted $202 million to replace the technology in finance, human resources and procurement. However, $465 million has already been spent to keep the old systems running. At least 146 contracts have been awarded to various companies, including Logibec, Services Makila and Médisolution, according to the Journal de Québec. “This has to stop,” Fréchette said at a press conference in Saint-Colomban in the Laurentians region. She insisted she had “taken steps” to end the overspending, including accountability measures and monthly follow-ups. “It’s important that we tighten controls,” she said. In May, the Public Markets Authority (AMP) reprimanded Santé Québec and the Ministry of Health over their Finance and Procurement Information System (SIFA) project after the bill skyrocketed — tripling from nearly $100 million to over $330 million. Although the contract with the firm responsible, LGS, was suspended by Santé Québec last October, fees are still being paid — $218,000 per month from October through February 2026, and $723,000 per month since March. This follows the fiasco over the digital transformation of Quebec’s auto insurance board, the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), which involved half a billion dollars in cost overruns. - The Canadian Press. Milliard on The Andrew Carter Morning Show Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard started his day by speaking with Andrew Carter on the Morning Show at CJAD 800. Calling himself the “new guy on the block,” Milliard, a pharmacist by training, told Carter that after being involved with the PLQ for 28 years, he felt the party needed “a true renewal.” “I’m not afraid to cater to the English-speaking community, or all communities,” he said. “I think it’s time that we unite all Quebecers.” Milliard blamed the CAQ for dividing Quebecers by language and region, and blasted the PQ for what it was calling a “catastrophic” decline of the French language in Montreal. “This is why I’m trying to bring to the campaign more unity, more calm, more respect and obviously new ideas,” he told Carter. “Who is going to bring true renewal to Quebec, and I don’t think that Premier Fréchette qualifies for that.” He invited Quebecers to consider the CAQ’s entire legacy when deciding who to vote for. Milliard also took a moment to insist that he was the “first to say yes” when asked if he would participate in an English-language leaders debate. “What I said was I’m not coming to debate just with Ms. Ghazal and Mr. Duhaime. I wanted all the leaders to be there,” he said. “We need the premier and the guy who’s been leading in the polls.” According to records maintained by the consortium of English-language news media, including CTV News, the invitation to participate in the debate was sent out on April 30. Québec Solidaire responded positively the following day, with the Quebec Conservatives also agreeing in its response on May 1. On May 16, the CAQ declined, followed by the PQ on June 22. On June 23, the Liberals told the consortium that the party would only participate in a debate if all five parties accepted the invitation. - Rachel Lau, CTV News Montreal digital journalist Day 5: This is where the parties are expected to start their day, in order of first appearance: Calls to review education system Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) Leader Christine Fréchette says she is reluctant to initiate a review and reform of the current education system. During a public meeting in Longueuil, on Montreal’s South Shore, on Sunday, she responded to a question from an attendee who called for a major education summit to address serious issues in the school system. “Is that the best solution? I’m not so sure,” Fréchette replied to Cherif Milky, an educational consultant who works in a school. The CAQ leader pointed out that she participated in the last forum in 1995 and was not convinced by the results. “It took a lot of energy for a result that didn’t live up to the effort put in,” she said. Milky lamented a “discrepancy between the ministry’s guidelines and what’s happening on the ground” in many areas, including “teaching practices, assessment practices and the development of social skills.” He argued much is left up to the schools to decide. “We see no leadership from the Ministry of Education (...), the guidelines aren’t being followed” in schools, “things are heading in the wrong direction,” he said. A teacher by training, French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge also questioned the usefulness of the consultation process. “I’m not opposed to it, but I don’t see any urgency in holding a national forum,” he said during a press scrum after the event. Parents, teachers and students are calling for more support, greater decentralization and stable budgets—but not a national forum, he insisted. “A forum would be a process of reflection, but where would it lead us? We don’t know.” Last week, the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) union and other education organizations called for a new summit. The Liberal Party (PLQ), for its part, has pledged to organize a national forum on education if it forms the next government. - The Canadian Press.
