The 2007 Quebec general election was held in the Canadian province of Quebec on March 26, 2007 to elect members of the 38th National Assembly of Quebec. The Quebec Liberal Party led by Premier Jean Charest won a plurality of seats, but were reduced to a minority government, Quebec's first in 129 years, since the 1878 general election. The Action démocratique du Québec, in a major breakthrough, became the official opposition. The Parti Québécois was relegated to third-party status for the first time since the 1973 election. The Liberals won their lowest share of the popular vote since Confederation, and the PQ with their 28.35% of the votes cast won their lowest share since 1973 and their second lowest ever (ahead of only the 23.06% attained in their initial election campaign in 1970). Each of the three major parties won nearly one-third of the popular vote, the closest three-way split (in terms of popular vote) in Quebec electoral history until the 2012 election. This was however, the closest three-way race in terms of seat count. Voter turnout among those eligible was 71.23%, a marginal difference from the previous general election in 2003. This was the first time since the 1970s that a government was not returned for its second term with a majority.

Overview

With just over a year left in the government's five year mandate, the Liberals called an election for March 26, 2007. In August 2006, there were widespread rumours of an election to be held in the fall with speculation that Premier Jean Charest wanted to hold elections before a federal election would be held. Benoît Pelletier, the minister responsible for electoral reform, had announced his plan to table two bills about election reform during the fall, possibly leading to a referendum on voting system reform to be held concurrently with the election. However, by December 2006, the plan was put off indefinitely due to strong resistance to the idea of proportional representation from within the Liberal Party. Speculation grew that a provincial election would be held following the federal budget. It was thought that the federal Conservative government would present a budget that would address the perceived fiscal imbalance. This measure would help Charest argue that his government was more effective in getting concessions from the federal government than a PQ government would be. With polls showing Charest's Liberals ahead of the opposition for the first time in several years, speculation intensified that Charest would not wait until the federal budget to call a provincial election but call one in the winter to take advantage of both of these developments. Charest recalled the legislature early in order to table a provincial budget on February 20, 2007. On the same day, federal Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty announced that the federal budget would be tabled on March 19, clearing the way for Charest to set a provincial election for a week later in hopes of benefiting from Flaherty's budget. On February 21, Charest called the election for March 26.

Issues

Charest wants to negotiate a solution to the problem of the fiscal imbalance between the federal and provincial governments with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. André Boisclair, leader of the Parti Québécois, had said he would hold a referendum (or "popular consultation", as in the party platform) on the issue of Quebec independence as soon as possible after an election win. Multiculturalism, secularism and the place of cultural and religious minorities in Quebec were issues in this election. There was a large scale debate over "reasonable accommodation" towards cultural minorities, and a few political leaders expressed their views on the question. Mario Dumont, leader of the Action démocratique, took a clearer position on the question than the others, calling on the majority to protect some elements of national identity and values such as gender equality, and suggesting that a Quebec Constitution be written, in which the privileges cultural minorities are to be given would be clarified.

Timeline

Political parties

Major parties

Other parties

Additionally, several other parties were registered as well: Parti conscience universelle, Marxist–Leninist Party of Quebec, Equality Party, Bloc pot, and Union des forces progressistes.

Campaign slogans

Incumbent MNAs not running for re-election

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Liberals

Péquistes

Independent

Results

The overall results were: !rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" |Party !rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;" |Party leader !rowspan="2"| Candi- dates !colspan="5" style="text-align:center;" |Seats !colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" |Popular vote ! Dissol. !2007 ! Change !% !# !% ! Change Notes:

Results by region

Results by place

Synopsis of results

Seats that changed hands

Summary analysis

Most marginal 2-way and 3-way contests

Opinion polls