Legault built the CAQ to offer voters a third option: nationalist, but not separatist

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Quebec Premier François Legault announced Wednesday that he is resigning as leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec and as premier, to step aside once a successor is chosen. In a hastily-called press conference (his own caucus was only brought in the loop that morning), Legault said, “I can see that many Quebecers currently want change and a change of premier, so I am announcing that, for the good of Quebec, I will be stepping down.”

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That desire for change had grown louder in the past year, with poll after poll showing his party battling for third place among the province’s five main political parties. The death knell may well have been a Pallas Data poll, published Tuesday, which showed the CAQ tied for fourth with a scant 11 per cent of popular support. The Parti Québécois scored 34 per cent, the Quebec Liberal Party 24 per cent, the Conservative Party of Quebec 16 per cent, and the socialist Québec solidaire party 11 per cent. Seventy-five per cent of respondents had an unfavourable opinion of Legault.

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