Back to work and ready to tune in? A primer on the Quebec election campaign

The Quebec election campaign has been underway for nearly two weeks, but with the end of summer holidays, the start of school and the long weekend, it may not have had your full attention.

Here's a look at what's happened so far and what to expect between now and the Oct. 1 vote.

What we've talked about

In the early days of the campaign, the major parties focused largely on health care and education — two issues seen as priorities for voters.

The Coalition Avenir Québec, which has been leading in the polls, promised to overhaul the province's beleaguered long-term care network. The details of the plan, though,were criticized for failing to fully take into account the province's changing demographics.

The party also pledged free kindergarten for four-year-olds, a move it says would free up 50,000 daycare spots.

The Couillard Liberals, who made unpopular cuts to education and health care in their first term, promised more cash for both sectors if given another mandate.

Couillard also said he would replace Gaétan Barrette, his unpopular health minister, with Gertrude Bourdon, a top hospital administrator who had also been courted by the CAQ.

The Parti Québécois, a distant third in the polls, has been more creative with its promises. They've pledged to create an app to encourage car sharing and co-operatives to cut the cost of school supplies.

What rocked the boat

One of the questions hovering over the campaign has been: do voters think the frontrunning CAQ is ready to govern?

François Legault's party has been off to a rocky start in that regard. One of the CAQ longest-serving MNAs, Éric Caire, has come under fire for accepting a $55,000 loan from a mayor in his riding.

But so far, Legault is standing by his candidate.

The party's president, though,didn't make it to Labour Day. Stéphane Le Bouyonnec, a candidate in La Prairie, withdrew from the campaign after being attacked for his past involvement with a high-interest loan operation.

He said he didn't want to be a distraction.

Over the weekend, the CAQ recruited Christian Dubé, senior vice-president of Quebec's Caisse de dépôt et placement since 2014 and a former canadidate for the party, to replace him.

The PQ has had its own struggles. The party's likely choice in Drummond–Bois-Francs, Pierre Marcotte, stepped aside after a blog revealed his history of making Islamophobic comments online.

And Michelle Blanc, running in the Montreal riding of Mercier, apologized after an old tweet surfaced in which she used the N-word.

What we haven't talked about (much)

At the outset, we wrote about how this is an election campaign without an identity. We're still waiting for that identity to emerge.

Much of the 2014 provincial election centred around the PQ's charter of values and the possibility of another referendum, after Pierre Karl Péladeau​ famously thrust his fist in the air and said he would "make Quebec a country."

This time around, neither issue — accommodation of religious minorities nor independence — has been the subject of much debate.

The environment, which ranked tops among young voters in our Vote Compass survey, has also not featured prominently in the campaign.

Québec Solidaire, though, has made a series of ambitious promises to curb greenhouse gas emissions, including a plan to ban the sale of vehicles that burn fossil fuels by 2030. The party is currently enjoying a small surge in the polls.

What to watch for

Just under half of voters were still undecided in one opinion poll conducted in the days leading up to the campaign, so the next two weeks remain pivotal.

Voters will have a chance to compare the party leaders side-by-side at three televised debates this month — including, for the first time, in an English exchange on Sept. 17.

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