Parti Québécois leader says he feeling optimistic on last day of Quebec campaign

MONTREAL – As Quebecers prepare to head to the polls on Monday, Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon remains cautiously optimistic. 

Speaking to journalists in Montreal, the separatist leader said he feels at peace with his performance in the campaign.

“I hope that tomorrow there will be a significant change in direction, and I think that’s what the people of Quebec are expecting,” St-Pierre Plamondon said. “I believe we are the only ones who can offer that.”

While the PQ has maintained a lead in the polls throughout the campaign, St-Pierre Plamondon said he is not taking a victory for granted. 

“The only certainty is that it’s going to be a tight race,” he said.

However, his party has been considering scenarios of forming a minority or majority government as serious possibilities.

He has said that either scenario would trigger a sovereignty referendum campaign, sometime after U.S. President Donald Trump leaves the White House in 2029.

St-Pierre Plamondon spent the entire day campaigning in the Montreal region, an area where the PQ has had some of its weakest support in the province over the past decade.

He is seeking to be reelected in a riding on the Island of Montreal. The seat was the only one held by the PQ on the island before the campaign began.

“I’m appealing to those who are not even certain they will vote tomorrow,” he said. “Please help us deliver the change you are requesting. And we need that support.”

On Saturday, the PQ leader laid out his priorities for his first 100 days in office, if his party forms government. In a news release, he said his top priority would be to allocate a special budget for homelessness, especially with winter around the corner.

In addition, a PQ government would cut red tape, abolish taxes on used goods, lower the gas tax, reinvest in community organizations and food banks, and lower immigration thresholds. 

St-Pierre Plamondon boasted that he is the only political leader to have visited every region of Quebec over the last 39 days. 

The PQ leader had his work cut out for him after the 2022 election, when his party only won three seats. The sovereigntist party hasn’t been in power since former premier Pauline Marois’ minority government dissolved in 2014.

St-Pierre Plamondon won the PQ leadership in 2020 after making his promise to hold a referendum in a first mandate after forming a government.

During his campaign, he attacked Ottawa and the British monarchy, calling the latter a symbol of “domination by force,” and pledging to defund the office of the lieutenant-governor, which represents the King in Quebec.

The PQ leader also leaned on nationalist sentiment and a desire for change to drum up support from those who were disillusioned after eight years of the governing Coalition Avenir Québec.

He linked “uncontrolled immigration” to problems such as the housing crisis, the decline in the French language, the struggling education system and strain on public services.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2026.