All the eyes of the political class will be riveted on the by -election in Arthabaska next Monday. The result will give a taste of the forces involved in view of the 2026 election, but will also dictate the coming year to the National Assembly.
A partial like no other
Rarely has a bypass election aroused so much interest.
It is because three political parties play their future there.
The PQ is positioned as the pending government and must therefore delight this county of Center-du-Québec, from where it has been absent since 2003.
The conservative chief Éric Duhaime puts on this county of entrepreneurs and farmers to finally enter the National Assembly.
For the CAQ, the evening may be painful. A survey carried out for the PQ at the start of the campaign granted him a score of barely 3%. It would be a slap for the party, which had won with almost 52% of the votes in 2022.
A caquiste to Ottawa
This by -election was made necessary by the resignation of Caquist deputy Eric Lefebvre, elected under the conservative banner in Ottawa.
The departure of the Chief Whip of the Government could not fall worse for François Legault, while the CAQ is now third in the polls, behind the PQ and the PLQ.
If the Pouquis troops won the constituency, it will be the third by-law lost by the CAQ for the benefit of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
We risk “going to bed late”
Very clever who can predict the result. PQ candidate Alex Boissonneault he himself announced “that we’re going to bed late on Monday”.
At the start of the campaign, a Segma survey carried out for the PQ placed the sovereignists at 42%, a single small point in front of the conservatives.
Since then, neither of the two parties has circulated new figures, which suggests that they are always in the shoulder.
Certainly, voters are enthusiastic: anticipation voting amounted to almost 26%.
Petrol price
Himself a candidate, the conservative chief Éric Duhaime will have succeeded in imposing the price of gasoline as one of the strong themes of the campaign.
The former radio host wishes to abolish the carbon scholarship, so the cost is affected by the pump. Since the abolition of carbon tax elsewhere in the country, Quebecers have paid their petrol more expensive than their Canadian compatriots.
In response, the PQ has also promised to attack the pump price too, but without stopping a concrete solution.
At the CAQ, a reflection on this subject is also on the table.
A candidate outside the country
The candidate of Québec Solidaire, Pascale Fortin, ended her electoral campaign with a vacation outside the country and will be absent on the day of the vote.
In defense, the nurse by profession had warned voters as soon as the electoral campaign was launched over this “trip organized for a long time already”, in the middle of summer.
But with a 9% score in the last ballot, Mme Fortin risks little to imitate the candidate of the NPD Ruth Ellen Brosseau … elected in the orange wave of 2011 while she was in Las Vegas.