Despite a difficult start to the campaign, the Quebec Liberal Party will remain the official opposition in the National Assembly. However, with the party registering its worst result in its 155-year history, significant reconstruction begins.
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At the time of writing, Dominique Anglade’s troops won 23 seats with just 15% of the vote. The concentration of votes on Ridings with a high proportion of English-speaking or allophone voters will therefore have allowed the PLQ to maintain its second position.
The Liberals leader also won her own riding of Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne, contested by Québec solidaire.
But the fall continues for this party, used to running Quebec’s fortunes. In 2018, the team led by Philippe Couillard suffered the worst defeat in its history at the time, with just under 25% and 31 seats.
renovation
Despite this mixed result, the announcement that the PLQ will form the official opposition was met with cheers at the Corona Theater, where more than a hundred supporters gathered on Monday night. Difficulties in the early weeks of the campaign and poor poll numbers have longtime Liberals fearing the worst.
“The work has just begun,” said Dominique Anglade, who arrived to the tune of Sia’s song Unstoppable surrounded by her family and confirmed surrogates.
The Liberal leader has begun to overhaul the party since she arrived just over two years ago.
“In the coming days, in the coming months, in the coming years, you will see that I will bring the same energy, the same conviction, the same ambition that I have for all of us here in Quebec, and you will see that together we are able to achieve great things for a Québec that represents all Québecians,” she declared to applause from the crowd.
In a subsequent press scramble, Ms Anglade acknowledged that the party’s rebuilding had to continue. At the start of the campaign the lack of organization was glaring. “There is a job that has to do with organization. We must continue this work very resolutely,” she said.
In recent weeks, the Liberal leader has opened the door to reforming the electoral system without making a firm commitment to it. There are “distortions” in the current model, she admitted to the results of the other opposition parties, which achieved a similar number of votes as the PLQ.
resist fortresses
The party can boast of not being limited to the island of Montreal. In the far west of the province, André Fortin will keep his headquarters in Pontiac in the Outaouais.
In Laval, Chomedey riding will also remain in the liberal fold. Other counties on Île Jésus and on Montreal’s south shore were still hotly contested at the time of writing.
Among the new MPs to watch, ex-Scotia Bank financier Frédéric Beauchemin, elected to Marguerite-Bourgeoys, will make his entry into the Blue Room.
A new face at Acadie, André A. Morin, a former federal prosecutor, will also join the Liberal justice team.