Quebec Premier François Legault announces his resignation during a news conference in Quebec City on Wednesday.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
François Legault, the nationalist Quebec Premier who has toughened language laws but shelved talk of separation, announced on Wednesday that he would resign just months before a scheduled provincial election.
In a hastily arranged news conference at the National Assembly in Quebec City, Mr. Legault said he would step aside after more than seven years in power amidst declining poll numbers and a series of contentious reforms. He said he will stay on as Premier until his party, the Coalition Avenir Québec, has chosen a new leader.
“Quebeckers want change and, among other things, a change of Premier,” he said.
The announcement shakes up Quebec’s political landscape, with the Parti Québécois leading in the polls and promising a third sovereignty referendum in a first mandate.
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That adds to the uncertainty around national unity stemming from a growing Alberta independence movement and U.S. President Donald Trump’s previous threats to turn Canada into the 51st state.
Still, it is unclear who stands to gain from Mr. Legault’s departure, and the upheaval will not necessarily work in favour of the PQ, said Dimitri Soudas, a political analyst and former director of communications for prime minister Stephen Harper. The sovereigntist party “had managed to capture the voters that wanted to throw François Legault out,” he said.
That appeal, he says, “has just vanished.”
Quebeckers are scheduled to go to the polls on Oct. 5.
Questions remain about the viability of Mr. Legault’s party without the only leader it has ever known. The former PQ cabinet minister and co-founder of Air Transat held together a fragile coalition of disillusioned sovereigntists and conservative federalists that risks coming apart without its linchpin.
“The party is very much centered around him,” said Antonine Yaccarini, a political analyst and former PQ and CAQ staffer. “It will be a challenge for the CAQ to survive [his] departure.”
Quebec Premier François Legault announced his resignation after more than seven years in power. The move triggers a leadership race just months before the fall provincial election.
The Canadian Press
Mr. Legault defended his controversial legacy in an emotional speech alongside his wife Isabelle Brais.
By founding the CAQ in 2011, Mr. Legault disrupted the province’s decades-long duel between federalists and sovereigntists by arguing that Quebec was a distinct nation, but that independence wasn’t realistic.
When he won the first of two majority governments in 2018, the upstart party had become a juggernaut and a “family,” Mr. Legault said on Wednesday.
His time as Premier was shaped by outside events, beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic that saw him briefly become the most popular leader in Canada, despite higher-than-average death tolls and dramatic policies, including a curfew. Many Quebeckers found his news conferences reassuring and praised his handling of the public health response, as a wave of fellow feeling swept the province.
“Quebec is a beautiful nation, full of solidarity,” he said on Wednesday, recalling that time.
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But Mr. Legault also put his nationalist stamp firmly on Quebec, with divisive results. On the language and identity file, he passed two flagship laws that were popular with the province’s francophone majority but left linguistic and religious minorities feeling targeted.
Bill 96 toughened restrictions on the use of English in medium-sized businesses and government services, while Bill 21 banned the wearing of religious symbols for public servants in authority roles, such as teachers.
“Quebeckers must be much more vigilant about the future of their nation and the future of French,” Mr. Legault said on Wednesday. “We will always be vulnerable in North America. We shouldn’t be embarrassed to protect our language and our values.”
Although the recent cost-of-living spike hit Quebeckers hard, Mr. Legault defended his economic record by pointing out his province’s faster GDP growth than Ontario, part of his open fixation with closing the wealth gap with the rest of Canada. He attributed that success to “aggressive” recruitment of investment in the Quebec economy, despite some high-profile failures such as the bankruptcy of Swedish battery-maker Northvolt, which had planned to build a $7-billion factory in the province.
Quebec Premier François Legault and his wife Isabelle Brais walk to a news conference to announce his resignation in Quebec City on Wednesday.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
The Premier also pointed to his renegotiation of the Churchill Falls hydro-power deal with Newfoundland and Labrador, long a source of bitterness for the Atlantic province but now a “win-win,” he said Wednesday. Even with a new provincial government in St. John’s casting doubt on the current agreement, Mr. Legault said he was “confident” a final deal would be positive for both provinces.
On social policy, Mr. Legault gambled on Bill 2, a major overhaul of physician pay designed to encourage, or even force, family doctors to take on more patients. Quebec has one of the lowest rates of primary care coverage in Canada, but the law provoked howls of protests from doctors before Mr. Legault watered down the legislation in December by removing penalties for physicians who failed to meet targets, among other measures. Then-health minister Christian Dubé promptly resigned, saying the Premier should have maintained a harder line.
Opinion: François Legault’s battle with Quebec doctors could be his last fight
The CAQ won a second decisive majority in 2022, but the Premier’s popularity has plummeted since then. Poll aggregator Qc125.com has for months indicated that his party is at risk of annihilation, and could lose every one of its seats if an election were held now.
To many observers, Mr. Legault’s fall from grace began in 2023 after he backtracked on a promise to build a third highway connection between Quebec City and its suburbs across the St. Lawrence River.
“That sent a shockwave across Quebec, because it was no longer about a bridge,” said analyst Mr. Soudas. “It now became about the value of any promise.”
As Mr. Legault’s fortunes have waned, the Parti Québécois has seen a surge in popularity after having been reduced to just three seats in 2022. The party has now led in the polls for two years, with Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon promising to hold a referendum on independence.
The CAQ is also now the second of Quebec’s major political parties in search of a new leader, with just months to go before the next provincial election. Former Quebec Liberal leader Pablo Rodriguez announced his resignation last month amid a campaign-financing scandal. The Liberals are expected to choose their new leader in March.
On Wednesday, however, rivals paused their criticism as tributes to Mr. Legault came in from across Canada and across the political spectrum.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a social media post that Mr. Legault “has dedicated himself to building Québec’s prosperity” and “demonstrated the value of thinking big, taking risks and working hard.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford thanked his counterpart for his “friendship, leadership and many years of public service,” while Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon of the PQ praised Mr. Legault’s “sincerity” and “sacrifices” to improve the lives of Quebeckers.
Francois Legault speaks to supporters after winning the provincial election in October, 2018 in Quebec City.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press