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Beauregard: The CAQ won the battle of ideas — but lost its voters François Legault’s coalition failed to deliver on some meaningful centre-right nationalist promises. Now rival parties stand to benefitLast updated Jul 08, 2026 You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.A voter drops a ballot into a box at the Church of Saint Andrew and Saint Paul during Quebec's provincial elections in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on Photo by ALEXIS AUBIN/AFP via Getty Images.Lisez la version française ici. Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorIn 2018, François Legault achieved the impossible by becoming Premier of Quebec with a new party, the Coalition Avenir Québec. This coalition of former PQ, Liberal, and ADQ members promised to reform Quebec’s tired social democracy and to defend its cultural identity, transcending the old divisions between federalists and sovereignists. Nearly eight years later, Legault is no longer premier, and his party ranks third in the polls, but center-right nationalism is more popular than ever in Quebec.What happened? Expectations for this new government, which promised to break the mold to do more and do better, were high. For this reason, the disappointment was all the more brutal during its second term.The National Post newsletter that doesn’t hold back, giving readers the unvarnished truth on media, politics and culture.By signing up, you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Right? will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againThe CAQ’s appeal as a reformist party historically stemmed from its critical stance toward Quebec social democracy, which it promised to overhaul. Once in power, the CAQ lowered income taxes, school taxes and capped annual increases in government fees at 3 per cent, curbing the ever-increasing drain on taxpayers’ incomes. But the promised structural changes never materialized.On the contrary, the government hit a wall due to its refusal to challenge the interventionist approach in place since the Quiet Revolution. By attempting to pick winners and betting big on the electric battery sector, the CAQ made unpopular investments in companies like Northvolt and Autobus Lion, which subsequently went under. Although not representative of the whole, these cases have become symbols of the state’s excessive involvement in the economy. Combined with significant deficits and a substantial rise in the size of the civil service, they have created a genuine political demand to reduce the size of government.The CAQ also shocked the political establishment in 2018 by criticizing excessively high immigration quotas and promising to reduce them, something no governing party had done in recent memory. During its first term, Bill 21 on religious symbols and Bill 96 on the protection of the French language, whatever one may think of them, reinvigorated Quebec nationalism and demonstrated that defending its cultural identity was possible despite the current constitutional impasse.On immigration, the picture is more mixed. While permanent immigration quotas have remained low, temporary immigration has skyrocketed, rising from approximately 150,000 in 2018 to over 500,000 in 2026. While the federal government, particularly under Justin Trudeau, shares responsibility for this failure, this drastic increase in immigration has drawn its share of criticism, particularly from nationalists who voted twice for the CAQ in the hope of reducing arrivals in Quebec, without success.The party now finds itself facing a curious paradox. Its more right-wing ideas, which some media described as divisive in 2018, are now more popular than ever… partly because of its difficulties in implementing them. Eight years later, the Coalition Avenir Québec has managed to create political demand for center-right nationalism, but it is not reaping the benefits.The Parti Québécois, nearly defunct after 2018, has risen to the top of the polls by appealing to nationalists disappointed by the CAQ’s two terms. The Conservative Party of Quebec, which garnered 1.5 per cent of the vote in 2018, has become a key political player under the leadership of Éric Duhaime and now commands 13 per cent of the electorate, including many former CAQ voters who want less government in their lives. Anyone who follows the pulse of Quebec’s social media will also see that nationalism and the economic right are the two ideological chapels attracting significant grassroots support among ordinary people.The tragedy of the CAQ, therefore, is that despite the triumph of its ideas, which are now more mainstream than ever, it appears to have lost its electoral base. Like Emmanuel Macron in France, who also promised to transcend the partisan divides of the past, the CAQ is discovering that a party not grounded in an established ideological movement risks sinking fast when other, more assertive options enter the fray.During the leadership race that followed François Legault’s departure, however, party members had the choice to take a more ideological and assertive turn with Bernard Drainville’s candidacy, which proposed, among other things, ending guaranteed job security in the civil service and cutting the range of services offered to asylum seekers. Instead, they chose Christine Fréchette, who embodies a form of managerial progressivism similar to that of Mark Carney, as commentators have noted.While it had managed to attract voters motivated by both identity-based nationalism and center-right economics in 2018, the coalition envisioned by François Legault now seems more fractured than ever. Yet, in a structurally left-leaning province since 1960, whose model proves its obsolescence every day, this rallying of “blue” voters remains the surest path to ensuring the prosperity and future of North America’s only French-speaking state. As the current climate points toward nationalist and center-right reforms, the political leader who succeeds in rebuilding this coalition will be the one to break Quebec out of its impasse.National PostÉtienne-Alexandre Beauregard is an author and researcher at Cardus. Between 2022 and 2025, he was a speechwriter and strategic planning advisor in the office of the Premier of Québec. The English version of his book Anti-Civilization will be released in the fall and is now available for pre-order through Sutherland House. Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. 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