Quebec Premier François Legault announces resignation

quebec city premiere François Legault has proclaimed he is stepping land, putting an terminate to a dominant run in provincial politics that saw him lead the party he founded to two majority governments. 

Legault said he will remain in place until his party elects a new leader. He made the announcement at a news conference Wednesday morning. 

“I can see that, right now, a lot of Quebecers want change first and foremost, and among other things, a change in premier,” said Legault, flanked by his wife and top aide.

The resignation comes after months of turbulence, falling poll results and ministers leaving the party.

“Of course, there were a few failures — we have talked about them a lot — but there was a lot of success above all,” he said. 

The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), will have just months to choose a new leader ahead of the vote scheduled for Oct. 5, 2026.

Legault has been Quebec’s premier since 2018 and the leader of the CAQ since 2011.

Before the legislative session broke for the holidays in December, the premier had vowed again to stay on as the party’s leader – a promise he had made several times over the last year, despite friction within the party and speculation that some MNAs wanted him to step down. 

Over the course of the fall, the premier lost both Lionel Carmant as social services minister, and Christian Dubé, as health minister, over disagreements with the way the government had handled changes in the remuneration of specialists and family doctors. 

Several MNAs also left or were kicked out of the CAQ in recent months, some for reportedly looking to transition to other parties. 

The latest Pallas Data poll, which surveyed more than 1,100 Quebecers between Jan. 9 and 10, placed the premier and his party at just 10 per cent in voter intentions. More than 50 per cent of respondents chose "very unfavorable" when asked for their opinion of Legault.

The Parti Québécois (PQ), which has promised to hold a referendum if they win, has been leading in the polls for months — with the party snatching three seats away from the CAQ in three successive by-elections since 2023.

The Quebec Liberal Party is also searching for a leader after Pablo Rodriguez stepped down last month.

Politicians of all levels of government took to social media to react to the premier’s announcement Wednesday, with some highlighting his contributions to the province during the pandemic. 

PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, says the premier should be recognized for having served the public for more than 25 years. 

“Despite our profound disagreements on the reasons behind our current collective difficulties and on the future of Quebec, François Legault has always been sincere in his desire to improve the fate of the Quebec nation,” St-Pierre Plamondon wrote. 

Interim Liberal Leader Marc Tanguay said it’s not the time to criticize the premier. 

“Regardless of our differences in opinion, politics comes with its share of sacrifices, especially for the family,” he wrote. €œI wish him all the best.” 

The premier’s departure came as a blow to some of his cabinet ministers. 

“He succeeded at what many considered to be impossible: to break the alternation of two old parties that, for too long, kept Quebec immobile,” wrote government house leader and Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette. 

But the province’s unions, which were often at opposing ends of public conflicts with the premier, had a different opinion of Legault’s legacy. 

In a statement, Quebec’s largest nurse’s union, the FIQ, said the premier left the public health system in a critical situation. 

“Overcrowded emergency rooms, exhausted staff and dilapidated infrastructure were not accidents, but the result of reactive management and an absence of consistent planning,” the union’s president Julie Bouchard said in a statement. 

Some Indigenous leaders were relieved to see the premier go, after years of his government refusing to recognize the existence of systemic racism in Quebec. 

"This is really good news, especially for relations between the government and First Nations," Manawan Chief Sipi Flamand told Radio-Canada.

"It was necessary that he make a decision worthy of [this office], especially since the CAQ government never recognized the existence of systemic racism." 

Prior to entering politics, he was the co-founder of the Canadian airline, Air Transat.

He was a MNA from 1998 to 2009— serving in the governments of former premiers Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry with the PQ before ultimately starting his own party.

His right-of-centre, nationalist party transformed Quebec politics, offering an alternative to the debate over Quebec's independence. The CAQ was the first party since 1970 to win an election other than the Liberals or PQ.

Legault said he is most proud of where he left Quebec’s economy, accelerating ahead of Ontario when it comes to economic growth, by encouraging companies to expand in the province and transforming the province’s energy sector. 

Quebec Premier François Legault is stepping down. Here’s what we know

But his legacy in the energy sector was not without controversy. 

In 2023, the government touted the construction of a Northvolt battery plant as a “historic” moment in the province’s transition to greener energy — saying it would create thousands of jobs. 

The province later lost hundreds of millions of dollars it had invested in the project when Northvolt's Swedish parent company declared bankruptcy last year.

For years, identity politics were at the centre of the Legault’s government's decisions.

It made a push for secularism by banning the wearing of religious symbols for some public employees, including teachers. 

The government is still in the process of expanding those laws to include daycare workers and a ban on public prayers. 

“We should not be embarrassed to protect our language, our cultures and our values,” Legault repeated in his resignation speech, pointing to his government’s language law — known as Bill 96 — as another big step in the province’s history.

The premier also steered the province through the COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, Legault looked back on the period as a moment of pride and solidarity, saying he still appreciates the sacrifices Quebecers made to protect others at the time. 

"I love the people of Quebec. And for me as premier, it was the greatest honour of my life," he added, ending his remarks.

---

---