With 59 seats, the Parti Québécois must find support beyond its caucus while opposition parties separate everyday policy from the sovereignty debate.
The Canadian
Politics
October 11, 2026
4 min read
Quebec’s incoming Parti Québécois government will begin with a victory that does not give it control of the National Assembly. After the October 5 election, the party holds 59 seats—five short of a majority—leaving premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon dependent on support from opponents whose priorities and views on independence differ substantially.
The Quebec Liberals, with 40 seats, will remain the Official Opposition. Québec solidaire has nine seats and the provincial Conservatives have 19, according to The Globe and Mail’s October 10 reporting. Those two smaller caucuses can influence whether the minority government survives, but neither should be treated as a ready-made extension of the PQ.
On practical policy, there is potential common ground between the PQ and Éric Duhaime’s Conservatives. Both want to remove the sales tax on used goods and abolish Santé Québec, the organization established to run the province’s health-care network. The Conservatives also support freezing elected officials’ salaries. Agreement on those measures, however, is distinct from backing a vote on independence, which the Conservatives oppose.
Québec solidaire shares a commitment to sovereignty but diverges from the PQ on immigration, economic policy and the process for pursuing a new constitution. St-Pierre Plamondon has said he would not hold a referendum while Donald Trump remains U.S. president. He reaffirmed his independence objective in his victory speech, without making it an immediate governing priority.
The result creates a legislature in which each major decision will require negotiation rather than an assumed mandate for the government’s full platform. For residents, the first meaningful test will be whether parties can reach workable agreements on services and household costs while stating clearly where co-operation ends. The government’s survival and any future referendum are separate questions, neither settled by last Monday’s count.
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