{"id":33895,"date":"2026-05-06T07:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/33895\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T07:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:49:09","slug":"with-summer-break-and-fall-election-looming-quebecs-new-premier-tries-to-make-her-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/33895\/","title":{"rendered":"With summer break and fall election looming, Quebec\u2019s new Premier tries to make her mark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Quebec Premier Christine Fr\u00e9chette speaks at a pre-session caucus meeting in Rivi\u00e8re-du-Loup, Que., on May 1.Jacques Boissinot\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Quebec<\/a>\u2019s new Premier has hit the ground running with just a few months left to distance herself from her predecessor Fran\u00e7ois Legault, and to convince voters her government still has something to offer. <\/p>\n

In the three weeks since she was sworn in, Christine Fr\u00e9chette<\/a> has scored meetings with Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> in Ottawa and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington, seeking to strengthen ties outside the province. She has cut taxes for businesses and promised new legislation to protect women from domestic violence. <\/p>\n

Faced with the Herculean task of bringing her party back from the brink of oblivion on the eve of an election, Ms. Fr\u00e9chette has, by her own account, been in \u201chyperactive mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, she opened a new session at Quebec\u2019s National Assembly, saying the province \u201chas a new lease on life.\u201d The legislature was prorogued shortly before Ms. Fr\u00e9chette won the leadership of the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec at a convention in April. <\/p>\n

In her opening address, Ms. Fr\u00e9chette said her top priorities will be the cost of living and the economy, citing a climate of instability that has reigned since the re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the face of the prevailing uncertainty, we have chosen to build the future and move forward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Fr\u00e9chette promised new measures to tackle the rising cost of living and to cut red tape for Quebec businesses. Last week, she announced a tax cut of one percentage point for roughly 75,000 small and medium-sized businesses across the province. <\/p>\n

However, she will have only five weeks to carry out her legislative agenda before the National Assembly rises for the summer, marking the unofficial start of campaign season for an election set for October. <\/p>\n

It seems unlikely that her performance, no matter how strong, will entirely reverse the fortunes of a party whose popularity collapsed under Mr. Legault\u2019s leadership and which is at risk of losing every one of its seats. Opposition parties insist she\u2019s merely a new face upholding the status quo. <\/p>\n

But with new leaders at the helm of the CAQ and the opposition Liberals, \u201cthere\u2019s a lot of volatility right now among Quebec voters,\u201d said \u00c9ric Montigny, a professor of political science at Laval University. \u201cA window of opportunity has opened, and people are listening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Fr\u00e9chette\u2019s early trips to Ottawa and Washington seemed calibrated to display a desire to forge new connections outside Quebec, particularly as trade talks loom with the United States. \u201cWe need to work more closely with the federal government to ensure that our interests are properly represented,\u201d she said Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Mr. Legault, who was first elected premier in 2018, often took a combative position in his dealings with the federal government, including demands for more control over immigration. <\/p>\n

But Ms. Fr\u00e9chette appears to have reconsidered that approach, as Mr. Carney enjoys widespread popularity in Quebec. Ahead of her speech, Deputy Premier Ian Lafreni\u00e8re told reporters there is a \u201cchange in tone\u201d in Quebec\u2019s relationship with Ottawa.<\/p>\n

Still, the new Premier is trying not to stray too far from her party\u2019s nationalist bona fides. On Tuesday, she announced that her first new bill will renew the notwithstanding clause on Bill 96, the CAQ\u2019s signature language law. The clause shields the law from constitutional challenges, and must be renewed every five years. It is set to expire in 2027.<\/p>\n

Charles Milliard, who took over as provincial Liberal Leader in February, dismissed the move as a \u201cpolitical tactic,\u201d and accused the CAQ of \u201cmanipulating\u201d Quebeckers on questions of identity.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Quebec Liberal Party Leader Charles Milliard gives remarks at the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, in Montreal on May 1.Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this really Ms. Fr\u00e9chette\u2019s top priority?\u201d he said in a video posted to social media. <\/p>\n

The Premier also said she wants to pass a Quebec constitution that has sparked heavy opposition. The bill defines a set of \u201cfounding principles,\u201d including secularism and equality between men and women, and aims to boost Quebec\u2019s autonomy within Canada. Critics say it was drafted without consultation.<\/p>\n

But Ms. Fr\u00e9chette is also working to leave her own mark on the province, including a promise to table new legislation that would give women who fear for their safety the right to know whether their partner has a history of domestic violence. The bill is in response to a spate of femicides that have shaken the province this year. <\/p>\n

The new Premier is establishing herself as \u201cvery studious and very composed,\u201d Prof. Montigny said. Still, opposition leaders are quick to dismiss Ms. Fr\u00e9chette\u2019s leadership as a superficial change to a government on its last legs. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe CAQ is the same party,\u201d Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon told reporters on Tuesday. \u201cIt is a party that is nearing the end of its term.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Quebec Premier Christine Fr\u00e9chette speaks at a pre-session caucus meeting in Rivi\u00e8re-du-Loup, Que.,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[164,224,238,214,212,239,17,211,230,231,227,213,210,235,171,234,143,222,249,215,216,229,225,226,219,240,111,220,244,245,247,242,246,94,243,217,142,233,113,232,241,223,236,237,228,221,218,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-33895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mark-carney","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-mark-carney","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}