PQ pushes for majority days before Quebec vote as Carney faces sovereigntist test

With Quebec’s Oct. 5 election days away, Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is pressing undecided voters for a majority mandate while Ottawa braces for a sovereigntist premier for the first time in more than a decade.

The Canadian Press, carried by Global News on Oct. 2, reported party leaders concentrating on tight ridings as polls keep the PQ ahead. St-Pierre Plamondon argued a strong PQ government is best placed to deliver change; Québec solidaire’s Ruba Ghazal urged voters to reject strategic voting. Separately, CBC News analysis notes the PQ is closing on majority territory and that St-Pierre Plamondon has promised not to hold a sovereignty referendum until after U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office, while still framing independence as the long-term goal.

CBC reports he has said only about 30 per cent of Quebecers currently want a referendum, yet he plans to replace an intergovernmental affairs minister with a minister of independence tasked with extracting gains from Ottawa. That posture collides with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “Team Canada” approach to the U.S. trade fight and nation-building projects — even as Carney remains popular in Quebec, where Liberals hold 44 of 78 federal seats. A five-party vote share around 30 per cent could still yield 64 seats for a majority under the first-past-the-post map, an outcome pollsters have flagged as historically low popular support for majority government.

The federal file is distinct from the PQ’s already-public vow on the lieutenant-governor: the near-term test for Carney is day-to-day federal–provincial coordination if Quebec’s next premier arrives with an independence ministry and a delayed but explicit referendum clock.

Sources: Global News / The Canadian Press; CBC News.