Christine Fréchette faces first provincial election test as CAQ leader

MONTREAL — Coalition Avenir Québec Leader Christine Fréchette is seeking her first electoral mandate as premier, less than six months after taking over from François Legault at the head of the party he founded.

Fréchette has spent the 39-day campaign trying to make the case that she can offer Quebecers a change in leadership without a change in government, putting her own stamp on a party that has been in power since 2018 while defending much of its record.

She has focused this pitch on the economy and the trade war with the United States, presenting herself as a steady hand in a period of uncertainty. At the campaign launch, she identified U.S. President Donald Trump as her “real opponent.”

“I am asking you for a mandate to move forward through the storm,” she said.

Fréchette has also campaigned on affordability, health care and support for families and seniors, with promises including more money for home care and school-related expenses.

She has sought support beyond the CAQ’s traditional base, appealing to sovereigntists who don’t want a referendum amid economic uncertainty and Liberal voters worried about the prospect of a Parti Québécois government. Fréchette has described herself as an “autonomist,” reflecting the CAQ’s effort to move beyond Quebec’s traditional federalist-sovereigntist divide.

She has also used this position to decline answering questions about how she would vote on the issue of sovereignty, if the PQ forms a government and triggers a referendum.

Fréchette’s campaign stumbled following the third leaders’ debate when she called for an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney, warning that Americans might be secretly trying to support the Parti Québécois to destabilize Canada. Hours later, she walked back those comments, issuing a statement admitting there was no evidence of any foreign interference in the election.

The 56-year-old Trois-Rivières native studied business administration, economics and international trade before earning a master’s degree in international relations.

She worked in international affairs at Quebec’s legislature in the late 1990s and later as a public affairs consultant. In 2002, she founded and became director of the North American Forum on Integration, a position she held until 2011.

Fréchette also worked at the Université de Montréal’s international studies centre and became an analyst of U.S. politics for several Quebec media outlets between 2008 and 2012.

In 2012, she joined the office of Parti Québécois minister Jean-François Lisée, who was responsible for international relations, where she became senior political advisor.

She left before the 2014 election over the PQ government’s proposed Charter of Values, which sought to restrict public-sector employees from wearing conspicuous religious symbols.

Fréchette then became director of external and institutional relations at Montréal International before being named president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal’s east end in 2016. She remained there until 2021.

She made the leap into elected politics with the CAQ the following year, winning the riding of Sanguinet, south of Montreal, in the 2022 provincial election.

Then-premier François Legault immediately named her immigration minister.

Less than two years later, she replaced Pierre Fitzgibbon as economy and energy minister. In that role, she oversaw major changes to Quebec’s energy framework that were adopted in 2025.

When Legault announced his departure in January after leading the CAQ since its founding in 2011, Fréchette emerged as one of the main contenders to replace him.

She defeated cabinet colleague Bernard Drainville in April, becoming only the second leader in CAQ history and Quebec’s second female premier, after Pauline Marois.

But four current and former female premiers told The Canadian Press this spring that Fréchette took over a party in crisis, though they cautioned against counting her out.

Her predicament has drawn comparisons to the political “glass cliff,” a term describing women who are elevated to leadership positions when an organization is already facing a high risk of failure.

After representing Sanguinet since 2022, she is seeking election this time in her hometown of Trois-Rivières.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2026.

The Canadian Press