Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard: How Québec politics changed under François Legault
Legault revitalised Québec nationalism, and reclaimed it for the right.
Contributing editor Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard was formerly a speechwriter and strategic planning advisor in the office of the Premier of Québec.
After nearly eight years as premier of Québec, François Legault announced his resignation on Wednesday.
He is thus closing the chapter on a 25-year political career, having launched the Coalition Avenir Québec in 2011 after serving as a minister in the Parti Québécois. When he became premier in 2018, he succeeded in supplanting the two parties that had governed Québec since 1970, the Parti Québécois and the Liberal Party, to offer a third, centre-right nationalist option. For the former head of Air Transat, this was a remarkable achievement, which triggered a lasting realignment of political divides in Québec.
Bringing identity back to the forefront of politics
As the Legault era closes, we can assess the considerable impact that François Legault’s two terms in office have had on Québec politics. After 15 years of Liberal rule, during which the question of Québec identity had been put on the back burner, he reintroduced nationalism to the heart of the political arena, not through the issue of sovereignty, but through the question of identity, tackling head-on the decline of the French language, radical Islam, and immigration. These issues, which had been simmering in Québec since the early 2000s, were perceived as taboo by politicians and the media, and many saw them as a losing proposition electorally.
On the contrary, François Legault has succeeded in substantially changing the political climate since 2018, to the point where nationalism has become essential to winning over French-speaking voters. By passing Bill 21 on religious symbols and asserting that “in Québec, that’s how we live,” he spoke to a majority of nationalists who want “Québec to remain Québec” at a time when its identity seems fragile. The bill was controversial and remains a wedge issue, especially in the rest of Canada where it has little support, but it is backed by roughly two-thirds of Québecers. His government also adopted a major reform of Bill 101 to better protect the French language and attempted to reduce migration flows to Québec, something no party had dared to promise before.
Shifting nationalism to the centre-right
The Coalition Avenir Québec also transformed political divisions by embodying a centre-right nationalism, an alternative to the left-wing nationalism that had been dominant since the rise of the Parti Québécois in the 1970s. While government efficiency and the defence of taxpayers were once the preserve of federalists, François Legault, a former businessman himself, took up the cause to defend the middle class and families crushed by an excessive tax burden.
Once in power, the CAQ substantially reduced income tax, school tax, and childcare costs for parents. It also set its sights on economic development, with the stated goal of ending dependence on equalization payments from other Canadian provinces. After years of sometimes stifling social democratic consensus, François Legault reminded voters that it is possible to love the Québécois nation while still revamping the “Québec model” and social policies that have sometimes outlived their usefulness.
The crumbling of a “big tent”
This coalition was not a natural one, as nationalists and economically liberal voters had historically been on opposite sides, with the former supporting the PQ and the latter the PLQ. This synthesis is a testament to the unifying talents of François Legault, who since 2011 had been the glue holding together this broad coalition of politicians and voters with widely differing profiles, including former members of the Action démocratique du Québec, disillusioned sovereigntists, and federalists from the Liberal Party of Canada. Fundamentally a moderate, he took a gamble on bringing these different profiles together under one banner, with the aim of making Québec both more prosperous and prouder.
However, the CAQ’s decline in the polls since 2023 came as numerous setbacks weakened this coalition. First, immigration has continued to increase, with more than 600,000 temporary residents now in Québec. Several requests to the federal government for new powers have also gone unanswered, causing many nationalists to return to the Parti Québécois hoping for a new referendum on sovereignty.
Conversely, many economically right-wing voters have also broken away from the coalition to join the Conservative Party of Québec. The failure of the Northvolt project, in which the government invested taxpayer money with great fanfare, has cast doubt on corporate subsidy policies. The SAAQclic scandal, which cost taxpayers more than $500 million more than it should have, also created an appetite for a reduction in the size of government and greater accountability for civil servants. As evidenced by the CAQ’s decline in the polls, as it now stands below 20 percent, the next leader will have some work to do to demonstrate that the party remains the solution to these problems it has identified in the past.
An ideological and cultural victory
Thus, the two political movements that currently enjoy favourable momentum in public opinion, nationalism and right-wing economics, have been carried forward by the Legault government since 2018, albeit imperfectly. Beyond the controversies and dissatisfaction, we must acknowledge the ideological victory of centre-right nationalism, which has undeniably become the political centre of gravity in the Québec debate.
Historians will later take stock of François Legault’s record, once the dust has settled and passions have cooled. Nevertheless, it can already be said that he is one of the premiers who have profoundly transformed the Québec political landscape. The realignment he initiated in 2018 will undoubtedly outlive him in some form.
Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard is a contributing editor at Without Diminishment, an author, and a researcher at Cardus. His latest book, Anti-Civilization: Why Our Societies Are Collapsing from Within, was published in September 2025 by Presses de la Cité. He was formerly a speechwriter and strategic planning advisor in the office of the Premier of Québec.
