Parti Québécois wins Quebec election, forming minority government and reviving sovereignty push
A historically low vote share, a five-seat gap, and a conditional referendum timeline define the PQ's return to power.
By Nora FieldData desk analyst
Quebec's Oct. 5, 2026 provincial election produced a result that is clear in its headline and narrow in its arithmetic. The Parti Québécois won 59 of 127 seats on roughly 28 per cent of the popular vote, according to the briefing drawn from BBC News, CBC News, and iPolitics. That gives the PQ a minority government, but it puts the party five seats short of a majority. It is the first PQ government since 2014, and the vote share is the lowest ever recorded for a governing party in Quebec.
The seat totals around the PQ matter as much as its own number. The Coalition Avenir Québec was wiped off the electoral map. The Quebec Liberals took 40 seats, the Quebec Conservatives 19, and Québec Solidaire nine. Add those three opposition caucuses and you get 68 seats, or nine more than the PQ's 59. In a 127-seat National Assembly, the PQ cannot simply rely on its own members to pass legislation or survive confidence votes.
