Fréchette says Trump is her main adversary as Quebec election campaign gets underway

QUÉBEC — The leaders of Quebec’s main political parties fanned out across the province on Thursday as the provincial election campaign officially got underway ahead of an Oct. 5. vote.

The trade war with the United States and President Donald Trump’s administration loomed large over the first day of campaigning as the heads of the Coalition Avenir Québec, the Parti Québécois, the Quebec Liberal Party, Québec solidaire and the Conservative Party of Quebec began making their pitches to voters.

Coalition Avenir Québec Leader Christine Fréchette noted the clear Quebec City sky was “CAQ blue” as her campaign began. But she also noted that U.S. tariffs are punishing some of Quebec’s key industries and casting storm clouds over the province.

Fréchette, launching her first campaign as CAQ leader, appeared upbeat as she took the stage at her first campaign event, alongside members of her team. Supporters applauded as she cast her party as the team Quebec needs to confront the economic uncertainty coming from south of the border.

“My opponent is named Donald Trump,” she said. “He’s the real adversary.”

Fréchette said that she and her team are best-positioned to work with municipalities, businesses, First Nations and Inuit leaders and the federal government to create stability and predictability amid a trade war that she said threatens jobs, businesses and families.

“I’m asking for a mandate to move forward through a storm,” she said.

The Coalition Avenir Québec will be seeking another mandate after eight years in power. Fréchette took over party leadership in April after former premier François Legault stepped down amid poor polling numbers.

Fréchette sought Thursday to separate herself from the previous government, repeatedly presenting her team as a combination of experience and renewal.

“There’s a different leadership,” she said, adding that Quebecers have seen “a renewed approach” since she took over. She said it would be the first time a “Fréchette government” would be put to Quebec voters.

However, Fréchette’s party trails in the polls behind the sovereigntist Parti Québécois, whose leader was quick to attack the last eight years of what he called the “Legault-Fréchette tandem.”

“The obvious question is, what do we do after eight years of CAQ? Are we really going to go for 12 years of that?” said PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who was surrounded by his team and family as he launched his campaign on a pier in his riding in the eastern part of Montreal.

St-Pierre Plamondon rattled off a list of what he described as the CAQ’s failures in the areas of health care, homelessness, housing and French language protection, as well as costly investments in companies that failed to deliver results, including the now-cancelled Northvolt electric battery plant.

He said his team wanted to focus on rebuilding Quebecers’ confidence in their government and their future, adding that he hoped for a campaign focused on substantive issues.

“Let’s not let the tariffs of Donald Trump’s administration confiscate this important debate from us; let’s not let him confiscate our election,” he said. “Because at the end of the line it’s up to us Quebecers to decide our future and our destiny.”

The Parti Québécois has been leading in public opinion polls since 2023, and has won four straight byelections.

St-Pierre Plamondon also mentioned his promise to hold a referendum on Quebec sovereignty in the next four years if his party forms government. He said earlier this month that the vote would only happen after Trump leaves the White House.

“After having demonstrated our capacity to properly manage and govern Quebec, we’ll ask a question: do we want, collectively, that Quebec decides for itself?” he said.

Liberal Leader Charles Milliard launched his campaign in Quebec City, away from the party’s traditional base of support in Montreal. The party has risen in the polls after the 46-year-old took over leadership in February, but still faces the challenge of winning over francophone and rural voters.

On Thursday, he promised to run a positive campaign focused on unifying Quebecers, repairing public finances and services, and building political alliances, the economy and homes.

“I have the intention to win back the heart and confidence of Quebecers one vote at a time, one riding at a time, one region at a time,” he said.

His federalist party, he said, is the best placed to form a united front with other provinces to combat the U.S. trade threat.

“In the context of an international trade war, we’re stronger as 41 million people,” he said. “And the CAQ has dropped the file of diplomacy with the rest of Canada and now they’re trying to make us believe it’s a priority. Quebecers are not fooled.”

At dissolution, the Coalition Avenir Québec held 79 seats in the legislature, compared to 18 for the Quebec Liberal Party, 11 for Québec solidaire, and seven for the Parti Québécois.

The Quebec Conservative Party held one seat, and there were nine independent members.

For left-wing Québec solidaire and the right-leaning Conservatives, the campaign is a chance to get voters’ attention and eat into the leading parties’ support.

Québec solidaire is pitching a platform that promises to tackle the high cost of living with measures such as a ceiling on rent hikes and a wealth tax on those with assets worth $25 million or more. The party is also sovereigntist and promises to hold extensive consultations, including with First Nations and Inuit, to build social acceptability before calling a referendum.

The party trails in the polls but Ruba Ghazal, the party’s female spokesperson and choice for premier, noted that polling has suggested that about half of Quebecers could switch their vote by October.

“I think they’re curious, and I ask them to continue to listen,” she said at the party’s launch event in Montreal’s Old Port.

Duhaime, the Conservative leader, is hoping to send elected members to the legislature after a 2022 election in which his party won close to 13 per cent of the popular vote, but no seats.

He told reporters and supporters that his party is the only one that presents a real alternative to the status quo. He made an appeal to “all the Quebers who are fed up with turning in circles, election after election, who want to finally get out of the status quo, of the old bureaucratic model and finally put Quebec in motion.”

His anti-tariff plan, he said, includes cutting $47 billion in government spending over five years, as well as slashing taxes and regulations while exploiting Quebec’s natural resources, including natural gas.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2026.

— With files from Morgan Lowrie, Erika Morris and Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman in Montreal

Charlotte Glorieux, The Canadian Press