Quebec will have a new Premier after the CAQ chooses their new leader this Sunday to replace outgoing Premier Francois Legault.
Christine Fréchette and Bernard Drainville are the two candidates. Both have served as CAQ ministers since being elected as MNAs in 2022. Voting for the new leader of the CAQ began on Tuesday. Just before noon on Friday, almost 66 per cent of the more than 20,000 eligible members have voted.
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“It’s positive because if you think about it in this race and if we think about general elections in some ridings sometimes you would have even less than that number of voters coming out to vote right,” said Daniel Tran, director of communications and governmental relations at Casacom & political analyst. “Now that being said of course that number is high because it’s members of the Coalition Avenir Quebec, these members will have a choice of finding the next Premier for the province of Quebec so that’s definitely good news right.”
CityNews spoke with Montrealers, and there appeared to be some enthusiasm for a new Premier.
“I think it was time for change and overall, like it ran its course with Mr. Legault,” said Mike, Montrealer. “I’m not so sure about the future of the CAQ but like I said if it’s the right leadership and if they respond to the needs on the street and in the townships as well I think their future will be a whole lot brighter and certainly they can turn things around from where it had kind of deteriorated under Legault towards the end.”
“I think it’s something people were expecting anyway,” said Ewen, Montrealer. “But we’ll see how it goes with the new leader.”
“We need a fresh start,” said Sylvain Lumbroso, Montrealer. “We’ve had a series of bad decisions made, and we want that to change. We need someone to lay some new foundations for Quebec. That’s going to be really important.”
Tran says that Drainville and Fréchette are two very different candidates who propose different directions for the province, but who also have very different leadership styles.
“From Bernard Drainville we saw that as soon as the race began he was able to put a lot of things in his agenda he’s somebody who’s not afraid to communicate his emotions but not also afraid to communicate his intention,” said Tran. “He has managed a lot of portfolios even education which is very hard to manage and very criticized by the population.”
“Now on the other side you have Christine Fréchette who’s known to be calm and collected, who’s being very rational,” added Tran. “She managed very complex portfolios such as immigration and also economic development. People know her as somebody who’s trying to bring people together and focus on a vision.”
The CAQ will announce their new leader and Quebec’s next Premier on Sunday at 4 p.m. at their leadership convention in Drummondville.
