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Parti Quebecois returns to power and promises a third referendum on Quebec’s independence from Canada.
Published on October 6, 2026
The secessionist Parti Quebecois won the most seats in the Quebec election and will form the next government in the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province, according to media reports.
The result on Monday raises the question of whether the province should leave Canada, testing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s message of national unity.
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Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the leader of the party, is to become prime minister.
During the campaign, he promised a third referendum to leave Canada during his first term, although he said he would wait until US President Donald Trump leaves office in January 2029.
It was not yet clear whether the party had reached the 64 seats needed for a majority in the 127-seat National Assembly.
If it falls short, it would face a minority government and would need support from opposition lawmakers to pass major legislation and survive confidence votes.
The Parti Quebecois, or PQ, last governed the province from 2012 to 2014.
Monday’s victory marks a sharp recovery for the PQ, which won just three seats in the 2022 provincial election.
His return also ends eight years in power for the Coalition Avenir Quebec, or CAQ, a center-right Quebec nationalist party that does not support independence.
Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, told the Associated Press news agency that the victory reflects Quebec’s multiparty system, where support is divided between different parties, rather than a surge in secessionist sentiment.
Support for independence remains at about 30 percent, low by historical standards, he said.
Still, Beland said a secessionist government in Quebec represents a new national unity challenge for Carney, especially with another independence-related vote in Alberta.
“Seeing that a pro-independence party won in Quebec barely two weeks before a referendum related to independence takes place in Alberta, the Trump administration could suggest that national unity remains a big issue in Canada despite the popularity of Mark Carney,” said Beland.
Quebec has held two previous referendums on independence, in 1980 and 1995, and voters rejected secession both times.
The second vote was narrowly decided, but there was no further referendum in those three decades.
