Quebecers are about to find out who will replace François Legault as premier

DRUMMONDVILLE — Quebecers will find out Sunday who will become their next premier as members of the Coalition Avenir Québec vote to replace the only leader the party has ever had.

Party faithful are gathering northeast of Montreal in Drummondville, Que., where results from the 20,500 members who voted will be announced around 4 p.m., one hour after polls close.

Two candidates — Christine Fréchette and Bernard Drainville — are vying to replace Premier François Legault, who created the CAQ in 2011 and has led the party ever since. After winning back-to-back majority governments, Legault announced in January he would step down as polls showed his party was deeply unpopular.

Fréchette resigned as economy minister to run for the leadership; Drainville stepped down from the environment portfolio to challenge her for the top job.

Drainville, a former Parti Québécois minister, has leaned on conservative ideas and positioned himself as the candidate best suited to defend Quebec’s identity and to adopt a stricter immigration policy. During his time with the PQ he introduced the so-called values charter, a precursor to the secularism law the Legault government adopted in 2019 that banned religious symbols for some public servants at work. Drainville’s values charter had similar policies but the bill was killed when the minority PQ government lost the 2014 election.

Fréchette is a former PQ staffer who has focused her leadership campaign on economic issues, including on reopening the debate around shale gas and hydraulic fracturing.

The next CAQ leader will have their work cut out for them: according to the latest Léger poll conducted for Quebecor media outlets, the CAQ is garnering nine per cent of the vote. Poll aggregator Qc125, for its part, predicts that the CAQ will win zero seats in the next election.

One pollster believes the leadership race could also influence whether the separatist Parti Québécois maintains its lead in the polls over the Quebec Liberals, opening the door to another referendum on Quebec independence.

“You have a really important battle between the CAQ and the Liberals for all the federalist vote,” said Jean-Marc Léger, president and CEO of polling company Léger. “What will happen in the CAQ will have a lot of impact on the provincial election and of course whether the referendum follows that election.”

Léger polls from January showed that Fréchette had some momentum that could allow the CAQ to gain traction among voters.

But more recent surveys from Léger suggest she and her party lost that momentum and would continue to trail far behind the PQ, Quebec Liberals and Conservatives, regardless of whether she wins the CAQ race.

Both hopefuls promised during the leadership race to limit immigration, improve access to housing and health care, and reduce the size of the government.

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Christine Fréchette:

— Born in Trois-Rivières in 1970 (age 56)

— Graduate of HEC Montréal and Université Laval

— Member of the board for the Conseil du statut de la femme, a government body responsible for research on gender equality

— Former deputy chief of staff to ex-Parti Québécois minister Jean-François Lisée

— President and CEO of the chamber of commerce for Montreal’s east end

— Elected CAQ member of the national assembly for Sanguinet in 2022; named to the immigration, economy and energy portfolios by Legault

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Bernard Drainville:

— Born in La Visitation-de-l’Île-Dupas in 1963 (age 62)

— Graduate of The London School of Economics and Political Science, and the University of Ottawa

— Former Radio-Canada journalist

— Elected Parti Québécois member of the national assembly for Marie-Victorin in 2007; named minister of democratic institutions under ex-premier Pauline Marois

— Radio host on 93.3 FM and 98.5 FM

— Elected CAQ MNA for Lévis in 2022; named to the education and environment portfolios under Legault

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 12, 2026.

— with files from Erika Morris

Caroline Plante, The Canadian Press