Quebec Liberals win majority over Parti Québécois as Marois steps down
Phillippe Couillard’s Quebec Liberals have won a stunning election upset, trouncing the Parti Québécois to win a majority government.
The Liberal leader’s accomplishment is a surprising achievement for the former Quebec health minister and neurosurgeon who just a few months ago was widely seen as an indecisive rookie leader.
But the 56-year-old Couillard benefitted from Marois’s many campaign missteps and a disastrous campaign in which voters appeared to get cold feet when Pierre Karl Péladeau entered the race and said he wanted to make Quebec a country.
“My dear friends, the division is over. The reconciliation has begun,” Couillard told cheering supporters Monday night. “We are all Quebecers. The pride in Quebec, of our identity, our language and our flag belongs to all Quebecers.”
The Liberals won 70 of the legislature's 125 seats, compared with 30 for the PQ. The Coalition Avenir Québec took 22 seats and Québec Solidaire finished with an additional seat for a total of three.
