PQ leader says it’s time to relaunch debate on sovereignty after Legault resignation

MONTREAL – The leader of the Parti Québécois says it’s time to refocus the political debate in Quebec to sovereignty following what he described as Premier François Legault’s failure to chart a positive path for the province within Canada.

Legault, who announced his resignation on Wednesday, failed to secure gains for Quebec in his more than seven years in office, proving that the Québécois nation cannot be autonomous within Canada, says PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.

In co-founding the Coalition Avenir Québec in 2011, Legault had promised Quebecers a third route — an alternative to the traditional sovereigntist-federalist dichotomy. Legault’s party would be a coalition of sovereigntists and federalists, focusing on strengthening the Québécois identity and economy, and taking the prospect of a referendum off the table.

“There is no third way possible in Canada,” St-Pierre Plamondon told reporters in Quebec City on Friday. “It’s either the status quo with the decline that comes with it, or independence — that’s the legacy. That will be François Legault’s legacy.”

Facing dismal polls, Legault said he would resign once his party chooses a new leader, acknowledging Quebecers want a change of premier.

St-Pierre Plamondon says Legault’s record in office shows the CAQ’s approach — come to be known in Quebec as the “third way” — has failed to yield the necessary improvements for Quebecers. He said Legault’s battles with the federal government for more powers over immigration and increased health transfers yielded “total failure.”

Demands for a single tax return administered by the province and for Ottawa to abstain from court challenges to the CAQ’s secularism law — which bans some public servants from wearing religious symbols on the job — have also been rejected, he said.

“If François Legault wanted to demonstrate the need to put the sovereignty debate on hold, well, he has ultimately demonstrated the necessity of this debate,” St-Pierre Plamondon said. “The fact that this debate on sovereignty is indeed a question of the survival of the nation is the only logical conclusion to be drawn from these demands, all of which have been refused.”

The Parti Québécois has been leading in the polls, and has promised to hold a referendum by 2030 if it forms government in the provincial election set for October.

The PQ leader brushed off questions about whether a new leader could reinvigorate Legault’s party and threaten his chances of forming government. However, he said only the voters could decide whether Legault’s political philosophy and the party he founded would survive the leader’s departure. 

St-Pierre Plamondon said he’s hoping the election can happen sooner than Oct. 5 — Quebec has a fixed-date election law — to avoid the legislature being paralyzed by Legault’s promise to resign once his party names a successor.

While nobody has officially come forward as a candidate, Economy Minister Christine Fréchette and Finance Minister Eric Girard have both expressed interest in becoming CAQ leader.

Some legislature members have publicly called on Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette to throw his hat in the ring. Jolin-Barrette, who ushered in Quebec’s secularism law and strengthened French-language legislation, thanked his colleagues in a statement on Friday but did not clarify his intentions.

“I am honoured to sit at your side in the national assembly and to defend a strong and ambitious vision of Quebec,” he wrote, without indicating whether he’ll run.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2026.