Overview
- Polling on the eve of Monday’s vote put the Parti Québécois in the lead and left the governing Coalition Avenir Québec trailing in forecasts of seat totals.
- PQ leader Paul St‑Pierre Plamondon has pledged to hold a referendum on independence within a first mandate and has said he would not press for a vote while President Donald Trump remains in office.
- Voters focused on bread‑and‑butter issues such as the cost of living, homelessness, crumbling infrastructure, immigration limits and long emergency‑room waits rather than on sovereignty.
- Quebec Liberal leader Charles Milliard urged strategic voting to block a PQ government and positioned the Liberals as the only clear federalist alternative to separatists.
- About one quarter of eligible voters cast advance ballots and Quebec’s first‑past‑the‑post system means the PQ could win a majority of the 127 seats even with roughly 30 percent popular support, reviving long‑running constitutional questions after more than a decade out of power.