MONTREAL — The party that governed Quebec for eight years now has no seat in the National Assembly, and on Sunday it handed its leadership, for the time being, to a man who lost his own riding.
The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) said its national executive council had designated Mathieu Lévesque as interim leader, effective immediately. The party’s release, dated October 18, describes him as a founding member who has been involved since 2012, and its official account on X carried the announcement the same morning.
The backdrop is the October 5 election. According to CTV Montreal, the CAQ held 79 seats when the Assembly was dissolved in August and failed to win a single one in the vote. Leader Christine Fréchette resigned the next day. Lévesque, who had sat for Chapleau in the Outaouais region since 2018, was among the defeated.
Lévesque served for several months as minister delegate for regions and as the minister responsible for youth, CTV Montreal reported. In the party’s release, he said he wished to put his experience and convictions at its service and that he believes the CAQ represents “the true third way,” as CTV rendered his French. He added, “Now, we must all engage in some soul-searching together,” and promised to work on rebuilding the party with its members and activists.
Party president Sarah Beaumier, quoted in the party’s French-language release, said Lévesque knows the party from the inside. The release lists his involvement since 2012: election campaigns, the chair of the party’s Commission de la Relève, and service as an MNA and minister. It also notes that he wrote a book, La Couleur CAQ, arguing that the party is not an anomaly but reflects a nationalist tradition with deep roots in Quebec’s past.
Fréchette, in a social media post CTV quoted, called him “the right person to take the reins of the party, defend our roots, and ensure a smooth transition until the leadership race.”
The scale of the fall is easier to see from the other side of the ledger. CTV reported that the Parti Québécois won 59 seats with 28 per cent of the popular vote, the Quebec Liberals 40 seats with 24 per cent, the Conservative Party of Quebec 19 and Québec solidaire nine. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is due to be sworn in as premier on Wednesday. Fréchette had become premier in April, succeeding François Legault, who stepped down in January after polls showed the party losing support.
Neither the release nor CTV’s account says when the leadership race Fréchette mentioned will be held, or whether the caretaker, who now leads a party without a single member in the Assembly, will seek the permanent job.
