Quebec Election Results© David Newman
Apr 30, 2003
Yesteday, Jean Charest was sworn in as the new premier of Québec, ending nine years of Péquist governance. Jean Charest's PLQ (Parti Libéral du Québec) won a majority government in the April 14 general provincial election, taking 76 seats in the 125 seat Quebec National Assembly (called so even if its really a Provincial assembly) and 46% of the popular vote.
The interesting thing is that its not that the social-democratic PQ (Parti Québecois) did a bad job, according to opinion polls on the PQs handling of their power during the past nine years, it's just that Quebeckers believed it was time for a change, and rather going to the far-right ADQ (Action Démocratique du Québec; the equivalent of the Canadian Alliance) they went for the right-of-centre Liberal Party. Charest's conservative roots showed as he opted for smaller governments and slimed the cabinet by a third. The PQ is the new Official Opposition with 45 seats and 33% of the vote; the ADQ has 4 seats with 18% of the vote. Two per cent of the population voted for other parties such as the recently formed Union des Forces Pregressistes, the Marxists-Leninists, the Green Party and the Bloc Pot. While the election was a setback politically for the Parti Quebecois, exiting Premier Bernard Landry stated in his speech following the announcement of the results, that in a democracy the people choose, and they are always right. He also congratulated ADQ leader Mario Dumont who was finally joined in the House, by other ADQists. If the Liberals won easy, of all the leaders, Charest was the only one to have a close personal victory, winning by only about 2,500 votes, and only had 45% of the vote. Jean Charest was once leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and is a strong believer in the Canadian Confederation, and his victory signals the first federalist government in the province since 1994 when Daniel Johnson Jr (taking over from Robert Bourassa) lost the provincial election to Jacques Parizeau, whou would later lead the province in a referendum on sovereignty (51-non; 49-oui). It seems the PQ can't do more than 9 years in government (they've only been in power between 1976 and 1985 and between 1994 and 2003). After years of slowly moving more to the right, leaving behind Levesque Socio-democracy behind, we'll see what a Liberal government can do in more-socialist-than-most Quebec.
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