Parti Québécois pulls off upset electoral win in Jean-Talon as voters turn back on CAQ

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Pascal Paradis becomes the Parti Québécois’s fourth MNA.

Published Oct 02, 2023  •  Last updated 4 hours ago  •  5 minute read

Parti Québécois candidate Pascal Paradis, left, raises his hands with PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon as he arrives to speak to supporters after being announced the winner in the Jean-Talon byelection, in Quebec City, Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Photo by Jacques Boissinot /The Canadian Press

QUEBEC — Voters in the Quebec City riding of Jean-Talon have sent a stinging message of discontent to the Coalition Avenir Québec government, electing a Parti Québécois MNA for the first time in the riding’s history.

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With all 163 polling stations reporting, the PQ trounced the CAQ leaving the other parties in its dust. Québec solidaire candidate Olivier Bolduc, on his third attempt to win the riding, placed third. The Liberals were fourth and the Conservative Party of Quebec fifth.

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The result is even more significant given the unusually high turnout rate, more than 55 per cent, which is high for a byelection.

For the PQ, the win is major. Not only has it never won the riding of Jean-Talon, it has not won a byelection since 2016. In the 2022 general election, the party was almost wiped off the map, reduced to three MNAs as nationalist voters shifted over to the CAQ.

The PQ winner in Jean-Talon, Pascal Paradis, becomes the party’s fourth MNA. The win will be seen as a personal victory for PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.

“The Parti Québécois is back in Quebec (city),” St-Pierre Plamondon told cheering supporters gathered in a local pub. “The PQ is back in Quebec.

“My friends, tonight, we have demonstrated, beyond any doubt, that the CAQ is no longer invincible. We have clearly demonstrated to Quebecers that the CAQ can be beaten and only one party is in a position to do this: the PQ.”

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Supporters react to the announcement of Parti Québécois candidate Pascal Paradis being elected in the Jean-Talon byelection, in Quebec City, Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Photo by Jacques Boissinot /The Canadian Press

The mood was very different at CAQ headquarters, with supports quietly sipping their beer and chatting while waiting for Premier François Legault to concede defeat.

Legault immediately took the loss on his shoulders, diplomatically congratulating the PQ for the win.

“As told you earlier privately, Marie-Anik (Shoiry) you did not lose,” Legault said in a short speech next to his candidate. “It’s the CAQ and me who lost.

“One thing is clear tonight. The people of Quebec have sent us a message, not just the people of Jean-Talon. I think the people of Jean-Talon were the spokespersons of all the citizens of the greater Quebec region to tell us you need to do an examination of conscience.

“This is what we will do. I fully intend to rebuild this link of confidence with the people of Quebec because it’s too important. We are going to listen to the people of Quebec and draw lessons. We will act to better respond.”

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The crowd filed out quietly later.

QS leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois insisted despite the disappointing results, the party is still a player. The QS candidate slipped from second in the general election to third Monday.

“We accept the results,” he said. “We restart our work tomorrow morning.”

It might, however, take a while for the CAQ to digest the loss.

“It’s disappointing,” CAQ cybersecurity minister Eric Caire told reporters. “It’s a wake-up call for all of us. I thought it would be closer. It’s not an easy night.”

Caire, however, insisted the loss does not augur gloomy news for the CAQ in the provincial capital.

“There is no need to panic,” he said. “There are still 89 CAQ MNAs in office. The election is not until 2026.”

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But the CAQ is not a party used to losing elections and the loss will be seen as a message to the government, which is starting to show its age after five years in office.

While the loss does not affect the CAQ’s majority standing in the legislature, symbolically it represents a dent in its armour in the provincial capital region, which it has dominated for years. It is the first time since the CAQ took power in 2018 that the party has lost a riding it held.

The loss is bound to spark a round of finger pointing, especially following the CAQ’s controversial decision to cancel an automobile tunnel link between downtown Quebec City and Lévis.

There were signs of trouble early. After a campaign where CAQ voters were greeted by voter chill in their door-to-door campaigning, CAQ workers and volunteers Monday were tight-lipped most of the day, unable to say which way the wind was blowing.

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While polls showed the PQ was ahead of the CAQ in the region, it was unclear whether those opinions would materialize into votes in the ballot box given the PQ’s total lack of history in this riding, which traditionally voted Liberal.

“It’s really close,” one senior CAQ official said, while another noted that, unlike in the past, two speeches were written for Legault given the uncertainty of the election.

The election was called to replace CAQ MNA Joëlle Boutin, who abruptly resigned from office in July citing the need for more time with her family and to pursue a professional career. Boutin won the riding initially in a 2019 byelection and then again in the 2022 general election.

The CAQ score has actually dropped each time it faced voters in Jean-Talon. Boutin had a majority of 4,208 in 2019 which fell to 2,988 in 2022. On Monday the party lost by more than 5,000 votes.

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The riding had previously been Liberal. In fact Jean-Talon had voted Liberal 18 consecutive times starting in 1966. When the Liberals lost the riding in 2019, they lost the only seat they held east of Montreal.

The people in the riding are used to voting often. This was the fourth byelection in Jean-Talon since 2008. The riding includes the old cities of Sillery and Ste-Foy, which are now boroughs of Quebec City.

It was a short but intense campaign, with the election debate mutating into daily work at the legislature. While the CAQ tried to focus on the need to keep the riding represented within the government, the focus shifted to the broken promise.

Voters on the street had a further list of grievances including inflation, the housing crisis and even a planned public transit tramway which will run through the riding.

pauthier@postmedia.com

twitter.com/philipauthier

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