General elections in Quebec, Canada, held every 4 years, occurred on Monday, October 3, 2022. 125 seats are available for candidates. The political party winning the election is the one that gets more than 63 seats. With this many seats, a party can govern more easily, since its party has more seats than all the opposition parties combined. In the 2018 election, the Coalition Avenir Québec (on the right side of the political spectrum) won the election handily, taking 74 of the 125 seats. During the 4 years CAQ was in power, the pandemic occurred. There was no action on environmental issues. As a young person, I am concerned about the ecological future of our planet and I believe that the environment should be the number one priority in Quebec. Unfortunately, my views do not seem to be shared by the government. For many people, the October 3rd election was important because not only is the environment in bad shape, but so are the housing, education and health care systems.
CAQ is not popular with young people under 34, since it rarely garners more than 30% support. September 23 was the day of the
climate protest. Three CAQ ministers who showed up at the Montreal protest demonstration were booed. Several young people asked them
to leave, since
their government was doing nothing to help the planet. On the other hand, the left-leaning Québec Solidaire (QS) party is supported by many young people. It is focused on a green and social reforms. The
other opposition parties are the Parti Libéral du Québec (PLQ), the
first opposition party, the Parti Québécois (PQ) party and the Parti Conservateur du Québec
(PCQ).
On October 3, the CAQ won 90 seats, the PLQ 21, QS 11, the PQ 3 and
the PCQ none. From my point of view, and that of many young people, these results
are disappointing, since the results mean that we will have 4 more years of CAQ government and, therefore, 4 more years of environmental inaction. The favorable results for the CAQ can
be attributed to "good" management during the pandemic.
The October 3 election results shocked many people. While no one has claimed the election was stolen a la Donald
J. Trump, there is a
distortion in popular vote mechanics that makes people unhappy. The CAQ
received almost 41% of the support but won 72% of the seats. The QLP received
14.3% of the support, and won 16.8% of the seats. QS received 15.4% of the
popular vote, but 8.8% of the seats. The PQ has 14.6% of the vote and 2.4% of
the seats. The PCQ has 12.9% of the vote and 0% of the seats. The problem is obvious. Although CAQ had promised to reform the voting system if
elected, it did nothing, claiming that Quebecers were not
interested. The October 3 results may bring the voting system debate back to the table since opposition parties are now calling on the government to reform the system, making headlines across the province.
The CAQ won the election handily, but faces challenges, having made several major mistakes during the election campaign. Premier François Legault grumbled when opponents attacked him and was often accused of being arrogant. The immigration minister for Quebec stated 80% of the immigrants in Quebec live in Montreal, that they don't speak French, that they don't work and that they don't care about the Quebec culture. All of these statements are false. During his victory speech, winner François Legault cited his main priorities: education, health and inflation. The environment was not one of them.