2012 Quebec general election

The 2012 Quebec general election took place in the Canadian province of Quebec on September 4, 2012. Lieutenant Governor Pierre Duchesne dissolved the National Assembly on August 1, 2012, following Premier Jean Charest's request. The Parti Québécois were elected to a minority government, with Pauline Marois becoming the first woman to be Premier of Quebec. The Quebec Liberal Party took second place, with Premier Jean Charest losing his seat. The newly formed party Coalition Avenir Québec led by François Legault took third place, while Québec solidaire took 2 seats out of the 125.

It was the first time since 2007 (and only the third time in Quebec history) that a minority government would be formed, as no party won an absolute majority of the seats. Both the PQ and Liberal vote declined which boosted support for the CAQ and Quebec Solidaire.

During Marois' victory speech, an attack including gunshots and a fire occurred at the Métropolis concert hall housing the event and a forty-year-old man died as a result of gunshot wounds.

2008

 * December 8 – 39th Quebec general election
 * December 15 – Pauline Marois becomes the leader of the Official Opposition.
 * December 18 – Swearing in of the Cabinet members

2009

 * January 13 – Yvon Vallières is elected President of the National Assembly.
 * January 14 – An economic statement is pronounced by Monique Jérôme-Forget.
 * March 6 – Resignation of Mario Dumont (ADQ) as MNA of Rivière-du-Loup
 * March 10 – The opening speech of the 39th Quebec Legislature is pronounced by Premier Jean Charest.
 * March 25 — The Conservative Party of Quebec is registered.
 * April 8 – Resignation of Monique Jérôme-Forget (Lib) as MNA of Marguerite-Bourgeoys
 * April 9 — The Parti nul is registered.
 * June 22 – In two by-elections, Jean D'Amour (Lib) and Clément Gignac (Lib) are elected MNAs of Rivière-du-Loup and Marguerite-Bourgeoys respectively.
 * June 25 – Resignation of François Legault (PQ) as MNA of Rousseau
 * September 21 – In a by-election, Nicolas Marceau (PQ) is elected MNA of Rousseau with 57% of the vote.
 * October 18 – Gilles Taillon is elected as leader of the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ).
 * November 6 – Éric Caire and Marc Picard leave the ADQ to sit as independents.
 * November 10 – Gilles Taillon resigns his post as ADQ leader amid Caire and Picard's defections. Taillon also called for a police investigation into the “troubling” funding practices in the party."
 * November 19 – Gérard Deltell replaces Taillon as leader of ADQ.

2010

 * January 6 – Resignation of Camil Bouchard (PQ) as MNA of Vachon
 * May 6 – Tony Tomassi is kicked out of the Liberal cabinet and caucus after it is revealed he was given a gasoline credit card by a private security firm.
 * July 5 – In a by-election, Martine Ouellet (PQ) is elected MNA of Vachon with 59% of the vote.
 * August 9 – Resignation of Jacques Dupuis (Lib) as MNA of Saint-Laurent
 * September 7 – Resignation of Claude Béchard as MNA of Kamouraska-Témiscouata (Lib), he dies from cancer later that day
 * September 13 – In a by-election, Jean-Marc Fournier (Lib) is elected MNA of Saint-Laurent with 64% of the vote.
 * November 29 – In a by-election, André Simard (PQ) is elected MNA of Kamouraska-Témiscouata with 37% of the vote.

2011

 * March 7 — A party named "Québec - Révolution démocratique" is registered.
 * June 6 – Louise Beaudoin, Pierre Curzi, and Lisette Lapointe leave the Parti Québécois to sit as independents.
 * June 7 – Jean-Martin Aussant leaves the Parti Québécois to sit as an independent.
 * June 21 – Benoit Charette leaves the Parti Québécois to sit as an independent and René Gauvreau is asked to leave the Parti Québécois pending an investigation of his former aide.
 * September 6 – Resignation of Nathalie Normandeau (Lib) as MNA of Bonaventure
 * September 19 – Jean-Martin Aussant (Ind, ex-PQ) announces his intention to register a new sovereigntist political party, Option nationale.
 * November 4 – Coalition Avenir Québec, a new party led by François Legault, is officially registered.
 * November 17 – Lisette Lapointe buys an Option nationale membership, but remains sitting as an independent.
 * November 24 – Daniel Ratthé is expelled from the PQ caucus.
 * December 5 – In a by-election, Damien Arsenault (Lib) is elected MNA of Bonaventure with 49.5% of the vote.
 * December 14 – The Coalition Avenir Québec and the ADQ announced an agreement in principle to merge, pending final approval from the ADQ membership.
 * December 16 – Resignation of David Whissell (Lib) as MNA of Argenteuil
 * December 19 – Éric Caire (Ind, ex-ADQ), Benoit Charette (Ind, ex-PQ), Marc Picard (Ind, ex-ADQ), and Daniel Ratthé (Ind, ex-PQ) join the Coalition Avenir Québec.

2012



 * January 9 – François Rebello (PQ) joins the Coalition Avenir Québec.
 * January 22 – The ADQ membership approves a merger with the Coalition Avenir Québec, resulting in ADQ MNA's Sylvie Roy, Janvier Grondin, François Bonnardel and leader Gérard Deltell becoming CAQ members.
 * February 14 — The Coalition Avenir Québec is registered.
 * February 25 – Founding convention of Option nationale.
 * March 4 – Independent Lisette Lapointe announces that she will not run in the next election.
 * March 21 — The Équipe autonomiste is registered.
 * April 3 - Louise Beaudoin (Ind) rejoins the Parti Québécois.
 * April 5 - René Gauvreau (Ind) is re-admitted into the Parti Québécois.
 * May 3 - Resignation of Tony Tomassi (Ind) as MNA of LaFontaine
 * May 8 — The Middle Class Party of Quebec is registered.
 * May 14 - Resignation of Line Beauchamp (Lib) as MNA of Bourassa-Sauvé
 * June 11 - In by-elections, Marc Tanguay (Lib) is elected MNA of LaFontaine with 53% of the vote, and Roland Richer (PQ) is elected MNA of Argenteuil with 36% of the vote.
 * June 13 — The Coalition pour la constituante is registered.
 * June 29 — The Parti démocratie chrétienne du Québec is renamed to Parti unité nationale.
 * July 11 — Documents from the Quebec Liberal Party and the Government suggest that a general election will be called on August 1 and take place on Tuesday, September 4.
 * July 13 — The Quebec Citizens' Union is registered.
 * August 1 - Lieutenant Governor Pierre Duchesne dissolves the National Assembly, on Premier Jean Charest's request, and calls an election for September 4, 2012.
 * September 4 - The election takes place.
 * Pauline Marois's victory speech is disrupted by the 2012 Montreal shooting.

Redistribution of ridings
The Commission de la représentation électorale performed a redistribution in 2011, which maintained the number of seats in the National Assembly at 125 for the next general election, making the following alterations:

Incumbent MNAs who did not run for re-election
Liberal
 * Vincent Auclair, Vimont
 * Daniel Bernard, Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue
 * Michelle Courchesne, Fabre
 * Monique Gagnon-Tremblay, Saint-François
 * Johanne Gonthier, Mégantic-Compton
 * Norman MacMillan, Papineau
 * Yvon Vallières, Richmond

Parti Québécois
 * Louise Beaudoin, Rosemont
 * Danielle Doyer, Matapédia
 * René Gauvreau, Groulx
 * Martin Lemay, Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques
 * Claude Pinard, Saint-Maurice
 * Sylvain Simard, Richelieu
 * Guillaume Tremblay, Masson

Coalition Avenir Québec
 * Janvier Grondin, Beauce-Nord

Independent
 * Pierre Curzi, Borduas
 * Lisette Lapointe, Crémazie

Results
! rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Party ! rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Party leader ! rowspan="2" style="font-size:80%;" | Candidates ! colspan="5" style="text-align:center;" | Seats ! colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" | Popular vote
 * - style="background-color:#CCCCCC;"
 * - style="background-color:#CCCCCC;text-align:center;"
 * 2008
 * style="font-size:80%;" | Dissol.
 * 2012
 * style="font-size:80%;" | Change
 * style="font-size:80%;" | Number
 * style="font-size:80%;" | Change (pp)
 * style="font-size:80%;" | Change (pp)
 * style="font-size:80%;" | Change (pp)


 * style="text-align:left;" | Pauline Marois
 * 125
 * 51
 * 47
 * 54
 * +3
 * 43.20
 * 1,393,703
 * 31.95
 * -3.22


 * style="text-align:left;" | Jean Charest
 * 125
 * 66
 * 64
 * 50
 * -16
 * 40.00
 * 1,360,968
 * 31.20
 * -10.88


 * style="text-align:left;" | François Legault
 * 125
 * 7†
 * 9
 * 19
 * +12†
 * 15.20
 * 1,180,235
 * 27.05
 * +10.68†


 * style="text-align:left;" | Françoise David, Amir Khadir††
 * 124
 * 1
 * 1
 * 2
 * +1
 * 1.60
 * 263,111
 * 6.03
 * +2.25


 * style="text-align:left;" | Jean-Martin Aussant
 * 120
 * 1
 * 82,539
 * 1.89
 * 82,539
 * 1.89
 * 82,539
 * 1.89


 * style="text-align:left;" | Claude Sabourin
 * 66
 * 43,394
 * 0.99
 * -1.18
 * 43,394
 * 0.99
 * -1.18
 * 0.99
 * -1.18


 * colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Independent
 * 46
 * 1
 * 11,578
 * 0.27
 * +0.07
 * 11,578
 * 0.27
 * +0.07
 * +0.07


 * style="text-align:left;" | Luc Harvey
 * 27
 * 7,654
 * 0.18
 * 7,654
 * 0.18
 * 7,654
 * 0.18
 * 0.18


 * style="text-align:left;" | Marc Fafard
 * 29
 * 5,197
 * 0.12
 * 5,197
 * 0.12
 * 5,197
 * 0.12
 * 0.12


 * style="text-align:left;" | Renaud Blais
 * 10
 * 2,743
 * 0.06
 * 2,743
 * 0.06
 * 2,743
 * 0.06
 * 0.06


 * style="text-align:left;" | Guy Boivin
 * 17
 * 2,182
 * 0.05
 * 2,182
 * 0.05
 * 2,182
 * 0.05
 * 0.05


 * style="text-align:left;" | Alexis St-Gelais
 * 20
 * 2,089
 * 0.05
 * 2,089
 * 0.05
 * 2,089
 * 0.05
 * 0.05


 * style="text-align:left;" | Jean Lavoie
 * 7
 * 2,053
 * 0.05
 * 2,053
 * 0.05
 * 2,053
 * 0.05
 * 0.05


 * style="text-align:left;" | Pierre Chénier
 * 25
 * 1,969
 * 0.05
 * -0.03
 * 1,969
 * 0.05
 * -0.03
 * 0.05
 * -0.03


 * style="text-align:left;" | Michel Lepage
 * 10
 * 1,244
 * 0.03
 * -0.10
 * 1,244
 * 0.03
 * -0.10
 * 0.03
 * -0.10


 * style="text-align:left;" | Paul Biron
 * 12
 * 1,227
 * 0.03
 * 1,227
 * 0.03
 * 1,227
 * 0.03
 * 0.03


 * style="text-align:left;" | Hugô St-Onge
 * 2
 * 420
 * 0.01
 * 420
 * 0.01
 * 420
 * 0.01
 * 0.01


 * style="text-align:left;" | Robert Genesse
 * 1
 * 256
 * 0.01
 * 256
 * 0.01
 * 256
 * 0.01
 * 0.01


 * style="text-align:left;" | Yvan Rodrigue
 * 1
 * 126
 * 0.00
 * 126
 * 0.00
 * 126
 * 0.00
 * 0.00


 * colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" | Independent Option nationale
 * 1
 * colspan="6" |
 * colspan="6" |

Notes:
 * colspan="4" style="text-align:left;" | Vacant
 * 1
 * colspan="6" |
 * - style="background-color:#e9e9e9;"
 * colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" | Total
 * 892
 * 125
 * 125
 * 125
 * 0
 * 100.00%
 * 4,362,688
 * 100.00
 * colspan="9" style="text-align:left;" | Valid ballots
 * 4,362,688
 * 98.78
 * +0.28
 * colspan="9" style="text-align:left;" | Rejected ballots
 * 53,749
 * 1.22
 * -0.28
 * colspan="9" style="text-align:left;" | Voter turnout
 * 4,416,437
 * 74.60
 * +17.17
 * colspan="9" style="text-align:left;" | Registered electors
 * 5,919,778
 * colspan="2" |
 * }
 * colspan="9" style="text-align:left;" | Registered electors
 * 5,919,778
 * colspan="2" |
 * }
 * }
 * † Results change is compared to the Action démocratique du Québec in 2008.
 * †† The party avoids formally designating David and Khadir as co-leaders, relying instead on internal direct democracy during general assembly meetings; the de jure leader recognized by the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec (DGE) is Régent Séguin.
 * * Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Results change is compared to the Action démocratique du Québec in 2008.

Synopsis of results

 * = open seat
 * = turnout is above provincial average
 * = winning candidate was in previous Legislature
 * = incumbent had switched allegiance
 * = previously incumbent in another riding
 * = not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature
 * = incumbency arose from byelection gain
 * = other incumbents renominated
 * = previously an MP in the House of Commons of Canada
 * = multiple candidates