(CCN) — Despite near-universal support for a secularized Quebec among the province’s main political parties, the Oct. 5 general election might have opened the door to renewed discussions about the place of faith in the public square.
The election produced a minority Parti Québécois government, with only 59 of the 64 seats required for a majority, and returned 19 Conservatives to the National Assembly, giving the Conservatives its first representation in the provincial legislature since 1935. The Liberals won 40 seats and Québec solidaire (QS) won nine.
The election also devastated the governing Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), which went from a 90-seat majority four years ago to no representation in the National Assembly, despite receiving 13.3 per cent of the popular vote.
The lack of a majority government means Quebec’s separatist party will need political support from elsewhere in the legislature, potentially creating opportunities for Catholics and others seeking greater influence over public policy.
The Quebec bishops are taking a cautious approach to the possibilities presented by the election.
“Following the elections on October 5, it is premature for us to determine whether a minority government will foster dialogue between elected officials and the Church in Quebec,” said Eliane Thibault, spokesperson for the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops, in a written response to Canadian Catholic News.
“Regarding the various social issues requiring consultation, the Catholic bishops have consistently demonstrated their interest in and readiness to participate in discussions,” she said.
As newly elected officials prepare to take office, the bishops want to maintain that dialogue and remain active in public discourse, she said.
Gilles Routhier, professor emeritus of theology at Université Laval, said Quebec’s Catholic Church must engage with the concerns of society as a whole, rather than confining itself to familiar debates over religious freedom, abortion and medical assistance in dying.
Those concerns include homelessness, housing, poverty, the needs of the sick, climate change, and Indigenous peoples, among the issues emphasized by Pope Leo XIV and his predecessors, he told Canadian Catholic News in a written response in French.
“The Church could support the government on some issues and be more critical on others,” Routhier said.
“We are in an unprecedented situation. It is difficult to predict how things will unfold. There will undoubtedly be opportunities and risks.”
The essential thing, he said, is “that there be room for dialogue between the Church and the government, without marginalization.”
Matthew Marquardt of Catholic Conscience, a national Catholic non-partisan civic engagement organization, called the result “a very interesting minority government.”
“No one appears to have any easy route to building a strong coalition to push any one mindset strongly,” he told Canadian Catholic News. “Opportunities for introducing new influences seem wide open.”
Marquardt said the election’s two biggest victors appeared to be the strongest advocates on opposite sides of the independence debate. He suggested that the PQ had concentrated so much of its platform on achieving independence that there could be room for other voices to influence its approach to governing.
“With such wide splits, it seems possible to re-introduce even life issues into the conversation, if done in a quiet, gently persuasive way,” he said.
Marquardt called the CAQ’s complete disappearance from the legislature extraordinary, especially given its share of the popular vote. He questioned whether Quebec should consider some form of proportional representation and encouraged Catholics to discuss the possibility among themselves and with political parties.
He suggested Catholics consider establishing a new political movement grounded in Catholic social teaching or, more realistically, seek greater influence within an existing party.
Catholics should reach out immediately to their elected representatives, government ministers, and the new premier, regardless of party affiliation, Marquardt said. They should discern which issues require the most immediate attention and communicate their concerns through thoughtful, persuasive arguments, while developing ongoing relationships with their representatives.
He encouraged Catholics to take advantage of opportunities to meet their elected representatives and introduce them to Catholic social teaching.
He also urged “concerned Quebecers” to join the “daily, public rosary movement,” he said, wondering whether the people gathering to pray the rosary at St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal might provide the beginnings of a “Quiet Counter-revolution.”
The gatherings are part of Renouveau du Québec, a prayer initiative launched by Cyril Azzi in the spring with the aim of praying the rosary for 1,000 consecutive days for a renewal of faith in the province.
Georges Buscemi, president of Campagne Québec-Vie (Quebec Life Coalition), said the election offers both opportunities and challenges, particularly with the Conservatives’ return to the National Assembly.
“‘Conservative’ is no longer a dirty word in Quebec. But we have no illusions,” Buscemi told Canadian Catholic News in a written interview.
Conservative leader Éric Duhaime reaffirmed his party’s pro-abortion position on Sept. 9, after the withdrawal of a candidate who had publicly opposed abortion.
On religious freedom, Buscemi said the incoming PQ government remains firmly committed to secularism.
The PQ supported Bill 9, the law strengthening secularism adopted April 2, which restricts collective religious activities in public spaces, extends restrictions on religious symbols to additional educational institutions, and provides for the withdrawal of public funding from religious private schools. Existing subsidized private schools have a transition period extending to April 2029.
During the campaign, the PQ promised further measures to prevent funding of schools that receive tax credits as religious organizations and to prohibit partnerships between schools and places of worship.
“That touches Catholic schools and parishes directly,” Buscemi said.
Although the Conservatives also support a secular Quebec, Buscemi pointed to statements by Duhaime expressing a desire to preserve Quebec’s Christian heritage, including its churches and crosses.
Buscemi said restrictions on public religious expression, sometimes supported by Quebecers concerned about the growing influence of Islam, also affect Christians.
He cited Catholic processions, including those held for Corpus Christi, as examples of religious activities affected by restrictions on collective religious expression in public spaces.
With a minority government, the choice of political partners could have important consequences on life issues and on separatism, he said.
QS has committed to maintaining abortion access and supporting access to medical services related to gender transition, which the party describes as gender-affirming care. Buscemi warned that cooperation between the PQ and QS could have consequences for those issues.
“If the PQ leans on QS to advance its plan for a referendum, that is the possible price,” he said.
He sees possibilities for cooperation with the Conservatives, particularly on policies involving family, education and Quebec’s declining birth rate.
Buscemi pointed to remarks during the election campaign by outgoing premier Christine Fréchette, who accused the PQ and Conservatives of converging on natalist policies. He welcomed the observation as evidence of possible common ground on support for families.
The Conservatives also could be allies on education, he said, citing their proposals to give schools greater freedom over programs and staffing, provide direct funding to schools, and allow parents more flexibility in choosing schools outside their residential neighbourhoods.
Their child-care proposals include enhanced tax credits for unsubsidized daycare and a taxable allowance of $100 a week per child for eligible families not receiving subsidized child care or claiming the child-care tax credit. The allowance would require at least one parent to work full-time.
Asked what Campagne Québec-Vie would seek from the incoming government, Buscemi called first for cooperation among the parties for the common good.
His priorities include greater support for families, particularly mothers who stay home to raise children; schools free from what he calls gender ideology; freedom in education and an end to restrictions affecting private and religious schools; and health care policies that provide more treatment options while reducing abortions and euthanasia.
He also called for public support for women suffering after an abortion, saying no party had opposed such a program during the campaign, but none had committed to one either.
Buscemi said several newly elected Conservatives have already shown sympathy for his organization’s concerns and will be among the first politicians he contacts.
He encouraged Catholics to frame their concerns around issues already attracting attention in secular Quebec, including the birth rate, the efficiency of public services, and the preservation of French language and culture.
“A society worried about having too few children has every reason to protect the children it conceives, and to support mothers who keep them,” he said.
He also linked support for families with efforts to preserve Quebec’s French-speaking culture.
“If you want to preserve a French-speaking Quebec, help families thrive here and now, rather than relying ever more on temporary foreign workers,” he said.
Buscemi also observed that the Quebec Liberal Party appeared to have stepped back from what he described as the strident progressivism of its 2022 election campaign. He suggested that many Montreal-area voters continue to support the Liberals primarily as a safeguard against another referendum on independence.
Buscemi urged Catholics to challenge the independence movement to consider the moral implications of the political alliances it forms.
At an appearance at Collège Laflèche in October 2025, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said Quebecers were a people in search of meaning and that “the life of a people must have meaning.”
Echoing a warning in the Gospel, Buscemi asked: “What would it profit Quebec to gain a country and, through an alliance [between the PQ and QS], lose its soul?”
