Quebec election leaders clash over independence referendum as campaign enters week three

Five Quebec party leaders answered questions on sovereignty and other issues in televised interviews Wednesday on Radio-Canada as the provincial election campaign enters its third week. The provincial general election will be held Monday, October 5, 2026.

Christine Fréchette, Coalition Avenir Québec leader, declined to state whether she supports Quebec independence. "My personal position is not important. It's not pertinent information," Fréchette told journalists. She posted on social media that she does not want to deny her past as a Parti Québécois staffer, saying she has grown since that time. Fréchette worked as a senior political adviser in the office of Jean-François Lisée, former PQ international relations minister, between 2012 and 2014. She has called a referendum "the worst possible timing" and centred her campaign on a trade war with the United States.

When Fréchette claimed Thursday that most decisions during her time in the Pauline Marois PQ government "were analyzed from the perspective of whether or not they would help the referendum," Lisée pushed back on social media. "Respectfully, that's completely false," Lisée wrote. "She and I were separatists (I still am — I hope she is, too), and we made that clear to our foreign counterparts, but for the most part, we pursued our agendas with Quebec's interests as our top priority."

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, Parti Québécois leader, was direct: a vote for him "is a vote for independence." He promised to hold a referendum in his first mandate if the PQ forms government, though he specified before the campaign began that he would wait until U.S. President Donald Trump's term was over before putting independence to a vote.

Ruba Ghazal, Québec solidaire co-spokesperson, said Wednesday she was open to working with St-Pierre Plamondon to hold a referendum, contingent on him committing to extensive public hearings, including with First Nations.

Charles Milliard, Liberal Leader, insisted his party is "only truly federalist option." Éric Duhaime, Conservative Leader, called on voters to give his party "balance of power" in a minority legislature to "block any referendum project."

Fréchette's Coalition Avenir Québec was created by politicians of different political stripes — sovereigntists and federalists alike — and is branded as "the third option" advocating for more autonomy for Quebec within Canada. Its members have not explicitly stated their positions on independence.