The National Assembly in Quebec City will now have a female Indigenous MNA sitting among its elected representatives. Innu CAQ candidate Kateri Champagne Jourdain won her seat in Duplessis, handily beating PQ incumbent Marilou Vanier by almost double the votes -- 8,711 to 4,798. She is also the first Innu to ever sit in the Salon Bleu, and the only Indigenous MNA to sit in the National Assembly since Abenaki lawyer Alexis Wawanoloath sat with the PQ in Abitibi East from 2007 to 2008. He was the first Indigenous MNA to sit in the Quebec legislature since Wendat Conservative member Ludger Bastien represented Quebec-Comte from 1924 to 1927. The win comes after almost all parties ran a record number of Indigenous candidates. Champagne Jourdain defeated QS Innu candidate Uapukun Mestokosho, who came fourth with 1,771 votes. Quebec solidaire (QS) led all parties with six Indigenous candidates, including Innu Uapukun Mestokosho, who came fourth in the Duplessis riding. QS star candidate in Ungava - Maitee Labrecque-Saganash (daughter of long-time NDP Cree MP Romeo Saganash) improved the party's showing in the region, going from fourth to second in voting, losing to CAQ incumbent Denis Lamothe - 3,132 to 2,092. Inuk candidate for the Liberals, Tunu Napartuk, came third with 1,569 votes. The riding has long struggled to get voter turnout, and 2022 was no exception with just 30.24 per cent of eligible voters showing up at the polls, by far the lowest in Quebec. Westmount-Saint-Louis at 44.85 per cent and D'Arcy-McGee at 47.63 per cent were the other two ridings with fewer than 50 per cent of the voting share. The Parti Quebecois fielded Ojibwe-Quebecois candidate Jacline Rouleau in Abitit-East to try and regain the seat Wawanoloath once held, but Pierre Dufour soundly won the riding for the CAQ with 47.3 per cent of the vote (9,801 votes). QS Anishnabe candidate Benjamin Gingras also ran in the riding and came third with 2,838 votes to Rouleau's 2,564.
