Éric Duhaime led the Conservative Party of Quebec to a historic breakthrough in the Oct. 5 provincial election, securing official party status in the national assembly for the first time in more than nine decades.
Duhaime’s party went from no seats won in the last election to 19, comfortably clearing the 12-seat threshold needed to gain official party status in the legislature. That’s the third-largest caucus in the national assembly, behind the separatist Parti Québécois, at 59 seats, and the Quebec Liberals, at 40. The other separatist party, Québec solidaire, secured nine seats.
The election results mean the Conservative Party is sending members of the national assembly (MNAs) elected under its banner to the provincial legislature for the first time since 1935. Among them is 57-year-old Duhaime, who captured 63 percent of the vote in Bellechasse.
A Party Revived
The original Conservative Party of Quebec was formed at Confederation in 1867, although its roots stretch back to around 1850.
The party’s collapse in 1936 stemmed from voter alienation over the actions of the provincial party’s federal counterpart. The federal Conservatives forced mandatory military service during World War I despite fierce opposition in Quebec, damaging the Conservative brand in the province. Deep internal leadership divisions helped hasten the party’s demise.
Conservative operations officially ended in 1936 when it dissolved and consolidated with the Union Nationale, a rising political movement that would result in three separate governments in the province.
The Union Nationale began to unravel after losing the 1970 provincial election. It officially ceased to exist on June 19, 1989.
Though Union Nationale had ended 20 years before, the contemporary Conservative Party of Quebec wasn’t formally established and registered until March 25, 2009. The Conservatives never won a single seat or captured more than 2 percent of the popular vote until 2021.
Duhaime, a Quebec City columnist and radio host, won the leadership in 2021 with nearly 96 percent of the vote. His first foray into politics was as a political adviser to Canadian Alliance Leader Stockwell Day from 2000 to 2002.
The party gained its first temporary legislative presence in 2021 when Claire Samson, an elected member of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), was ousted for donating to the Conservatives, and subsequently joined the Tories. Another former CAQ MNA, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, crossed the floor to join the Conservatives earlier this year.
This election marks Duhaime’s third attempt to win a seat, including two as party leader. Duhaime ran unsuccessfully for the defunct Action démocratique du Québec in Deux-Montagnes in the 2003 election.
He did not seek election again until after he had won the Conservative party leadership. He placed second in 2022 in the Chauveau riding behind the Coalition Avenir Québec candidate.
He also lost a 2025 byelection in Arthabaska-L’Érable and finished second behind the Parti Québécois candidate.
In his post-election speech on Oct. 5, Duhaime recalled, while laughing, that when he first took over as leader and tried to organize a party event, just one person showed up, “and I paid for his lunch.”
“But I tried to find other people to join us as a party, and I didn’t give up,” he said, recalling how he and other party members went on to establish party associations and drive to various parts of the province to build support.
“We used our savings, and people said we were wasting our time. After the 2022 election, a lot of people said we were going to be wiped out, and a lot of people insisted that our ideas were old and worn out. But you know what? We showed them that the naysayers were all wrong,” he said.
Gaining Momentum
The Conservatives won 13 percent of the popular vote in 2022 but zero seats, with its support spread too thinly across the province.
That led to a new strategy for 2026, when Duhaime focused his campaign on historically right-of-centre Quebec City and the Chaudière-Appalaches regions that had previously supported Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), but had voted for the Conservatives federally.
His messaging was that the Conservatives are the party to offer something different. He also pledged to dramatically reduce gas taxes by pulling Quebec out of its carbon trading partnership with California, remove restrictions on oil and gas development in the province, expand opportunities for private health-care services, and eliminate $47 billion in provincial expenditures throughout a five-year period.
On election night, the Conservatives flipped numerous suburban and semi-rural districts surrounding the provincial capital to blue. But its true electoral dominance emerged along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, where it secured seven seats. The party also broadened its geographic reach into eastern Quebec by capturing the Rimouski riding.
The Conservatives’ strong showing at the ballot box is part of the reason the Parti Québécois secured only a minority government.
In his election night speech, Duhaime said he would play the role of a watchdog on the government, aiming to protect taxpayer interests while also trying to block the path to a separation referendum.
Duhaime said his party’s revival isn’t an accident, but is driven by the values it stands for.
“It’s the values that are deeply anchored in our identity, our history, and our regions: individual liberty and entrepreneurship, family values, Quebec’s place within the Canadian confederation,” he said.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
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