CAQ wins big in Quebec City region
Liberals lose all but one riding to Coalition Avenir Québec
The Coalition Avenir Québec has pulled off a major coup in the Quebec City region, taking eight of the 11 ridings on the north shore of the St. Lawrence and all six ridings across the river.
The Liberal Party managed to salvage just a single one of the eight ridings it won in 2014, with Sébastien Proulx's victory in Jean-Talon.
"Our call for change is crystallizing," said an ecstatic Geneviève Guilbault moments after the star CAQ candidate was declared re-elected in Louis-Hébert, the former Liberal stronghold which she wrested from the governing party in a 2017 byelection after veteran MNA Sam Hamad quit politics.
Guilbault said the team worked long and hard to present a solid team, and the overwhelming support for the party in the region reflected that.
Voters also re-elected Éric Caire in La Peltrie, despite the PQ attempt to force him step down after he admitted during the campaign having accepted a personal loan from the mayor of L'Ancienne-Lorette.
Caire was first elected in 2007 under the Action démocratique du Québec banner and ran under the CAQ in 2012 after the two parties merged.
"We've been working tirelessly, day after day, to reach this objective," Caire said, pinching himself.
The incumbent junior transport minister, Véronyque Tremblay, lost her seat in Chauveau by more than 12,000 votes to the CAQ's Sylvain Lévesque.
In Charlesbourg, another Liberal minister, François Blais, fell to the CAQ. Jonatan Julien, a former Quebec City councillor, ended the night more than 10,000 votes ahead of the incumbent employment and labour minister.
South of the St. Lawrence River, in the Chaudière-Appalaches region, it was a sweep for the CAQ in all six of the region's ridings.
In Beauce-Nord, Luc Provençal was re-elected, as were Marc Picard in Chutes-de-la-Chaudière and François Paradis in Lévis.
In Beauce-Sud, the CAQ's Samuel Poulin took nearly 63 per cent of the vote, handily beating Liberal incumbent Paul Busque. The Liberal's Dominique Vien lost Bellechasse to the CAQ's Stéphanie Lachance and Isabelle Lecours trounced the Liberal newcomer in Lotbinière-Frontenac, taking almost 54 per cent of the vote.
Québec Solidaire takes 2
The only ridings in the region that didn't get swept by the pale blue wave were won by Québec Solidaire candidates.
Catherine Dorion won in Taschereau, and Sol Zanetti defeated the Liberals' star candidate, health administrator Gertrude Bourdon, in Jean-Lesage.