BURST
PLESSISVILLE, QC — “Plessisville is Conservative. He’s wasting his time here.”
Samuel Côté, a country music DJ, and his girlfriend Mélanie Lévesque, a social worker, were eating lunch on their porch, just steps away from where Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon was trying to shore up support before the election.
Clearly, the PQ did not have their vote. Their lawn sign showed they instead supported their Conservative candidate, Tarek Henoud, who would end up winning the riding of Arthabaska—L’Érable, located between Montreal and Quebec City, on Monday.
This is also one of the handful of seats that would end up costing the PQ its coveted majority, having underestimated the voter turnout for their Conservative opponents.
“To begin with, I’m not a huge separatist,” said Côté, who also goes by the alias DJ Sammy. “I used to vote for Québec Solidaire when I was much younger — like a lot of young people in the 18-to-25 age range. But I really lost interest in them during COVID.”
Côté said he was skeptical of the “medical conspiracies” during the pandemic and refused to get vaccinated. It was during that time that he subscribed to follow Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime who was not shy to address those questions.
“That’s what made me move from the far left to a less extreme right, I’d say.”
With the pandemic behind them, Côté and Lévesque said they continued to subscribe to Duhaime’s propositions to lower taxes so families could have more in their pockets and to cut in Quebec’s bloated bureaucracy to reinvest in better services for people.
One example that spoke to them was the promise to abolish the provincial tax on used goods. Lévesque said it makes no sense to pay taxes on a used car, for instance, when those same taxes were already paid for when that same car was brand-new.
Côté also said Duhaime’s promise to abolish Quebec’s “carbon tax” appealed to him. The province remains the only jurisdiction in Canada to have maintained its carbon pricing system, which is adding to the already bloated price at the pump.
The PQ government has promised to abolish the provincial tax on used goods. It also intends to cut the provincial tax on gas by half for one year and reimburse it completely for individual Quebecers earning less than $40,000 per year with a cheque of $125.
Côté said he was happy to see the ideas promoted by the Quebec Conservatives be adopted by other parties — and in this case, make their way to government.
“The important thing is for the ideas to get through — not for the Conservative government to get elected. No. The goal is for the ideas to get through,” he said.
While lots of ink has been spilled on the referendum issue, many Quebecers have expressed they just want to get by. And Duhaime was able to pound that message.
As a result, the Quebec Conservatives are making a noticeable comeback in the National Assembly with over 20 per cent of the votes and a whopping 19 seats. They won 15 out of the 18 seats in Quebec City, spilling into central Quebec and the Eastern Townships. Their navy blue seats now form a large blot on a map of Quebec.
“It exceeded our expectations,” said director of communications Cédric Lapointe.
Duhaime has said he built on the lessons of the past campaign, where his party won no seats despite finishing with 13 per cent of the popular vote. So, he focused his efforts on the Quebec City area, campaigning in surrounding regions as his support grew.
Lapointe said the idea was to develop their brand as the “party of taxpayers” by focusing on people’s purchasing power. He said it was a clear contrast with the PQ and the Quebec Liberals, which were more focused on constitutional debates.
“We were considered by many people as an alternative to the old parties,” he said.
The Quebec Conservatives were not immune to criticism, however. Some of their candidates made headlines for recent comments on vaccines, abortion or Canada becoming the 51st state. Duhaime dismissed those comments as “distractions.”
His campaign was also overshadowed by revelations that 62 per cent of his most recent book, “Destination Autonomy: Expanding Quebec’s Powers within the Canadian Confederation,” was written with artificial intelligence.
Duhaime argued that AI is a tool like any other and those were still his ideas.
In the last stretch of the campaign, Duhaime called on voters who were disappointed by the incumbent Coalition Avenir Québec government to instead opt to vote for the Conservatives to block a PQ majority and a possible third referendum.
Duhaime made that ultimate appeal in front of a garage with two buses — one with a “Yes” sign and the other with a “No” sign.
“There is only one party that can stop them from leaving the garage,” he said.
The Quebec Conservatives were aiming for at least 12 seats and form a recognized party at the National Assembly. Poll aggregators were showing there would be close races with the PQ in many ridings which could reduce it to a minority government.
The race in Arthabaska—L’Érable was especially personal for both parties.
The PQ had won a byelection in the riding in 2025 with former journalist Alex Boissonneault against Duhaime, who had asked Henoud, who was also their candidate in 2022, to step aside in an attempt to finally win a seat at the National Assembly.
St-Pierre Plamondon had even promised, days before the vote, to name Boissonneault as one of his ministers in a PQ government. In the end, it wasn’t even close.
Henoud won 41 per cent of the vote against Boissonneault’s 33 per cent.
Duhaime mentioned this accomplishment in his speech the night of the election.
“Tonight, we made history. For the first time in (nearly) 100 years, Quebecers have decided to send a large caucus of Conservative members to the National Assembly.”
“And just think about this: we defeated six incumbent ministers, and we even defeated a Parti Québécois minister, believe it or not,” he added.
That comment prompted loud boos from the PQ supporters on their election night.
Duhaime said the rise of his party on Monday night is certainly no accident.
“It is about a political family — about values deeply rooted in our identity, our history, and our regions,” he said.
“Individual freedom, entrepreneurship, the importance of family, regional autonomy, Quebec’s autonomy within the Confederation — in short, the pride of being Québécois,” he continued.
During an unrelated announcement in Sherbrooke on Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney would not comment on the rise of the Quebec Conservatives at the provincial level.
“For us, at the federal level, we take messages from byelections and federal elections,” he said.
In that sense, he said he was “very encouraged” that his own party won over 50 per cent of the votes in a Quebec byelection back in August.
National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com
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