Support for Christine Fréchette as CAQ faces challenges after Legault’s resignation

Quebec Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy Christine Frechette, takes part in a tour of Mila, Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute during a visit by Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, in Montreal, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)

Quebec Premier François Legault’s party is beginning the search for a successor with only months before the next provincial election, but experts say replacing the party’s founder won’t be easy.

Recognizing Quebecers’ desire for change — and his party’s dismal showing in the polls — Legault announced Wednesday he would resign in the coming months after the Coalition Avenir Québec chooses a new leader.

The next day, one high-profile CAQ member whose name has circulated as a contender — Economy Minister Christine Fréchette — received the support of fellow cabinet minister Gilles Bélanger, who heads the cybersecurity portfolio.

“I think Christine is the best candidate,” Bélanger said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

First elected in 2022 to the Montreal-area Sanguinet riding, Fréchette took over the important economy portfolio from departing minister Pierre Fitzgibbon in September 2024.

However, neither Fréchette nor anyone else in the party has publicly stated they wish to replace Legault, who has served as the CAQ’s only leader since he co-founded the CAQ in 2011, with back-to-back majority mandates in 2018 and 2022.

Université de Montréal political science lecturer Simon Dabin says one of the next leader’s biggest challenges will be to take a position on sovereignty, as the poll-leading Parti Québécois promises a third referendum by 2030 if elected.

He said the question of Quebec’s place in Canada will likely be a defining one in the next campaign, and the next CAQ leader will have to “hold together legislature members who have diverse and varied opinions on a certain number of subjects.”

The 68-year-old Air Transat co-founder began his political career with the Parti Québécois, but became disenchanted with the decades-old sovereigntist-federalist debate in the province, and created the CAQ to offer Quebecers a third way: a focus on Quebec nationalism and autonomy within the Canadian federation.

Faithful to its name, the party is a coalition of federalists, sovereigntists and others whose affiliation is less well known.

Dabin, however, says Legault’s third way may be a difficult line to walk for his successor, especially as chances of a referendum increase.

“The autonomist positioning of the CAQ, a position that made sense eight years ago, will be complicated to defend in a campaign” when sovereignty is a central issue, Dabin said.

And while no candidate has emerged yet for the party leadership, several names are circulating, including cabinet ministers Sonia LeBel, Simon Jolin-Barrette and Bernard Drainville.

Drainville, who was a PQ legislature member for nine years before leaving politics and returning as a member of the CAQ, told radio station 98.5 FM on Thursday that he isn’t ready to talk about a possible leadership bid.

“I’m not there yet,” the province’s environment minister repeatedly told host Patrick Lagacé, adding that he wanted to keep the focus on Legault.

He said he believed his party would remain relevant “as long as Quebecers are nationalist,” and that the CAQ, and he personally, have ruled out ever calling a referendum, though he didn’t answer when asked how he’d vote if one were to take place.

The party is facing a tight timeline to organize its first-ever leadership race ahead of the election scheduled for Oct. 5.

It will also have to contest a byelection in the Chicoutimi riding, which was left vacant by the September resignation of former CAQ municipal affairs minister Andrée Laforest.

Legault’s replacement will also have to work to chart a new future for a party that is sitting near the bottom of the polls, and whose image is inextricably tied with its leader and founder.

Université de Montreal political science professor Frédérick Bastien says a party’s ability to move on from its first leader is a test of whether it’s there to stay.

When asked whether the party would remain a political force without Legault, Bastien said it was still up in the air.

“It’s difficult to predict and it will depend on the person who will succeed him,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2026.