Quebec Liberal Leadership Race to Begin in January Following Rodriguez’s Resignation

The Quebec Liberal Party has outlined the main rules of its upcoming leadership race after Pablo Rodriguez resigned as leader last week amid an investigation into campaign financing.

The race will kick off on Jan. 12, 2026, and the leadership convention will take place on March 14.

Party members wishing to run will have until Feb. 13 to file their candidacy papers. The entry cost to join the leadership race has been set at $30,000, while the ceiling for campaign expenses will be $120,000.

The party said in a release that the the electoral committee, chaired by lawyer Nicolas Plourde, will ensure the race will “respect electoral law, the Party’s Constitution, democratic rules, and best practices of internal governance.”

The new contest will take place less than a year after Rodriguez became Liberal leader in June 2025. Rodriguez had defeated businessman Charles Milliard with 52.3 percent in the second round of voting.

Rodriguez, a former federal cabinet minister under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, had faced weeks of internal turmoil before publicly announcing he was stepping down on Dec. 18.

Following allegations in media reports of potential vote-buying by the Rodriguez leadership campaign, Quebec’s anti-corruption police said earlier this month it has launched a criminal investigation. Rodriguez said he welcomed the probe to shed light on the matter.

The practice of vote-buying in leadership races was not illegal at the time, but the National Assembly closed that loophole by unanimously passing Bill 14 on Dec. 11.

The latest allegation in media reports say that donors to Rodriguez’s leadership campaign had been reimbursed with cash envelopes, in contravention of electoral law.

The Liberal Party called the practice “unacceptable, unethical,” and said it had been done without the knowledge of Rodriguez or his team.

Rodriguez in his Dec. 18 resignation announcement said he was holding his “head high” and had no reason to feel guilty. “I always acted with authenticity, integrity, and ethics,” he said in French.

“My integrity has never been questioned during my 20 years of political life and it’s not going to start today,” he added.

Rodriguez said there’s no tolerance in his party for wrongdoing and that if ongoing investigations show an improper or illegal act was committed, “this individual will have to deal with the consequences.”

Aside from the probe by Quebec’s anti-corruption police, the Liberal Party has mandated retired judge Jacques R. Fournier to look into the cash-for-votes scheme.

Quebec’s ethics commissioner is also looking into MNA Sona Lakhoyan Olivier, whom Rodriguez had suspended from caucus because of the probe. The commissioner is reviewing whether Lakhoyan Olivier used resources from her constituency office during the leadership campaign. She has denied any wrongdoing.

The scandal came at a time when the Quebec Liberal party was hoping to regain the trust of voters and mount a solid response to the separatist Parti Québécois (PQ).

Liberals last won in 2014 and have since had poor showings, with 31 seats won in the 2018 election and 21 seats in 2022, out of 125 seats in the National Assembly.

The PQ did much worse in the last two elections with 10 and three seats respectively, but it has taken the lead in the polls since early 2024 amid a collapse of support for the ruling Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) of Premier François Legault.

The latest polling shows Liberals losing some support amid the turmoil of recent weeks. According to polling projection website Qc125.com, the PQ currently leads with 36 percent of voting intentions with the Liberals trailing at 21 percent.

The provincial election will take place in October 2026. The PQ has pledged to hold a sovereignty referendum if it forms government.