On Wednesday morning, Quebec Premier François Legault announced he was resigning from his post, leaving the National Assembly and the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) party that he founded in 2011. He will stay on until the party selects a new leader later this year.

His departure comes in the wake of the resignation of CAQ Health Minister Christian Dubé just before Christmas, which was triggered by the revision of controversial Law 2, which rolled back some key changes to how the province pays doctors. Another one of Legault’s key cabinet ministers, former economic development minister Pierre Fitzgibbon, jumped ship in September 2024. 

Once the most popular premier in the country during the height of the pandemic, Legault and his governing party have fallen out of favour as of late, dogged by scandals like the aforementioned doctor’s pay reform, as well as the SAAQCliq scandal, where the overhaul of Quebec’s auto insurance agency’s website ballooned into a multi-million dollar boondoggle.

A recent Pallas poll indicated that he was viewed unfavourably by 75 per cent of respondents. 

In his resignation Legault said that the role was “the greatest honour of his life” and thanked the people of the province. 

With provincial elections to be held no later than this October, poll aggregator 338 Canada’s projections as of Jan. 14 show the Parti Québécois leading Quebec’s voting intentions at 35 per cent, projecting a firm majority of 76 seats (63 required for a majority). The Quebec Liberal Party sits in second at 23 per cent (37 seats projected), the Conservative Party of Quebec at 16 per cent (eight seats projected), the CAQ at 15 per cent (zero seats projected), and Québec solidaire at nine per cent (four seats projected). 

“I can see that, right now, a lot of Quebecers want change first and foremost, and among other things, a change in premier,” he said. “I truly hope the next election focuses on the major challenges facing Quebec, rather than a simple desire for change.””

From the heights of industry to the Salon Bleu

Born in Montreal, Legault is a former businessman and the co-founder of the airline Air Transat.  He was recruited to the PQ by Lucien Bouchard, serving as the party’s minister of industry and commerce as well as education. He left politics in 2009, before forming what would become the Coalition Avenir Québec (Coalition for the future of Quebec) in 2011 with fellow businessman Charles Sirois. Merging with Mario Dumont’s Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ), the next year, the party grew into a formidable presence in the National Assembly, as they pitched themselves as an alternative to the decades-long cycle between Parti Québécois (PQ) and Liberal governments. 

After a few cycles as second opposition party, the CAQ eventually captured a solid 74-seat majority in 2018 and hasn’t looked back. 

The party campaigned on cutting immigration to the province, strengthening language and secularism laws, as well as privatizing certain aspects of the healthcare field. Once in power, the CAQ made strides in these areas, passing the controversial Bill 21 in 2019, which bans certain public servants from wearing religious symbols, as well as 2022’s Bill 96, which strengthens existing language laws. Both laws sparked protests and legal challenges. 

The CAQ was re-elected in 2022 with an even bigger majority of 90 seats, though its popularity has waned as the second term wore on. 

A credit rating downgrade, reforms to health care and education, as well as injecting $270 million in the failed Northvolt battery plant all took their toll on the ruling party. 

Local reps weigh in

CAQ MNA for Papineau and Minister for the Outaouais Mathieu Lacombe thanked Legault in a French-language social media statement and said the outgoing premier was the reason he entered politics in 2018.  

“He was the one who placed his trust in me by appointing me minister at just 30 years old,” he wrote. “By his side, I learned a great deal about politics: discipline, the need to fight for your causes, and also the crucial importance of not neglecting one’s family amidst your responsibilities.”

Lacombe told Le Droit that he has no intention of seeking his party’s leadership.

Pontiac MNA André Fortin said while he often disagreed with Legault’s politics, he respected his long tenure in government. 

“While we may have disagreed on most issues, I certainly do respect the fact that he gave much of his working career to the province of Quebec and its people,” he told THE EQUITY on Thursday. 

He said that during Legault’s resignation speech, he touted some accomplishments that Fortin didn’t think were worthy of pride. 

“I have to say I wholeheartedly disagreed with his message, many of his ideas. I think at this point he leaves a province that is in a very difficult financial situation, that struggles to provide a lot of the services that Quebecers expect from a government,” he said. “So while I salute his engagement and his life of public service  [ . . . ] The end result of his years certainly is not what he had promised Quebecers.”

Fortin said that the upcoming CAQ leadership race will be an interesting one, as the coalition Legault helped bring together charts its course for a future without its founding leader. 

“Because they’re a coalition, some of their ministers are old PQ ministers who still have that fibre in them, some of their ministers and potential leadership candidates are people who have not been traditionally associated with that movement, who are more focused on the economy,” he said. “So there’s a wide array here for the CAQ to choose from so I don’t think the debate is so much about the personality of the leader, but about what direction this party is going to take. It’s always been a party that didn’t want to say the word ‘federalist’, that they were proud Canadians, so they have a lot to think about as they select a new leader.” 

New leaders across the political spectrum

The CAQ won’t be the only party bringing in new leadership before the fall’s election, as both the QLP and Québec solidaire will have new faces at the top of their parties. Pablo Rodriguez was initially elected leader of the Liberals in June, though resigned from the post before the year was out, following a series of scandals regarding fundraising during the leadership race, as well as his firing of parliamentary leader Marwah Rizqy. His resignation on Dec. 17 came just days after Quebec’s anti-corruption police UPAC announced that they had opened an investigation into the fundraising allegations, making him the shortest-serving leader in the party’s history. 

Charles Milliard, the second-place candidate in last spring’s race is the presumed frontrunner this time around, and is also the candidate who Fortin has supported throughout. 

Fortin said that the CAQ race would have minimal impact on the Liberals’ direction.

“Every party always looks to what the other parties are proposing and what the political landscape is in general,” he said. “But at the same time, we know who we are at this point, we have a leader coming in in the next few weeks, most likely Mr. Milliard, whose agenda isn’t going to waver. His agenda is very clear and it’s to focus on the main priorities of Quebecers. It’s an old slogan that we used in 2014, but ‘Les vraies affaires’ meaning the real priorities, that’s what we intend to focus on and to propose to Quebecers.”

The left-wing separatist party Québec solidaire has also elected two new co-spokespeople since the 2022 elections, Sol Zanetti and Ruba Ghazal. Ghazal was elected to the post in November 2024, following the departure of Émilise Lessard-Therrien, while Zanetti was elected the following year, after the resignation of long-time leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois in March 2025.

Conservative Party of Quebec chief Éric Duhaime became leader of his party in April 2021, making PQ leader Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon the (relatively young) elder statesman of the National Assembly’s leaders, having headed his party since Oct. 2020.