The Current - Quebec Premier François Legault resigns. What happens now?

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Provincial politics in Quebec have been in turmoil for months. Now the premier Francois Legault has announced that he is resigning, as soon as his party finds a leader to replace him. We speak with Emilie Nicolas, a columnist for Le Devoir in Montreal about what this means for the province, and the rest of Canada.

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This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. For the bien of my party, and especially for the bien of Quebec, I announce, today, that I'm going to quit your post of Premier of Quebec. Some breaking news from Quebec this morning. Provincial politics there have been in turmoil for months, and today the Premier of Quebec, Francois Lago, has announced that he is resigning, as soon as his party finds a leader to replace him.

Emily Nicola is a columnist for Le DeVois. She is in Montreal. Emily, good morning. Good morning. It is winter in Quebec, and Francoa Lago has taken his walk in the snow. Why is he doing that now? It's been a very rough fall for Francois Lago, a very rough 20, 25 year. He has never been more impopular. He was the most impopular premiere in Canada. his party, the CQ, was trailing in fourth position in the polls, and there's a provincial election due in the fall. Depending on the polls, as it stood, if there had been an election tomorrow morning, the CQ departed that he found it personally would have had maybe one or two MNA maximum elected in the next election cycle.

And so it was about either him leaving, or his party disappearing from the political map with him as his founder holding on to power for too long. I mean, in some ways you predicted this when we spoke last month. You said that January would be decision time for the future of the CAQ. And I mean, Legault, he said that he had taken a walk in the snow and decided to stay and now seems to have changed his mind. There has been already two senior ministers who resigned some of his closest friends and close friends and allies, one of which Yerdin Carment, who is himself a doctor and who has a daughter that is a doctor, basically resigned over the crisis in health care that Transologne created by going after, yeah, precisely doctors. And also, he had just lost in December one of his closest. Fran Chastan Zoube, who is the health minister over exactly that file.

But there were many other issues that was creating a lot of turmoil for the CAQ. It seemed to me that the more impopular they were, the more they were trying to double down on issues that are very polarizing in Quebec as a way to maybe jump back from that. And so he had started the throne speech in the fall by talking about the dangers of radical Islam, talking about immigration, talking about the decline of French and Montreal and issues that are very sensitive in this province

and putting forward a whole bunch of bills that dealt with identity politics issue. But as Quebecers like people, everywhere in Canada are mostly concerned when it comes to ballot questions. with the cost of living and the cost of rent and the cost of housing. Those are issues that maybe some people agree with, but it doesn't mean that they necessarily want a re-elected party

that proposes those ideas. And so there were some issues that made it hard for him to actually jump back. And so we just have a couple of minutes left. I'll ask you two questions. One is what does this mean for the province, given the fact that there is a provincial election coming up in October? The liberals also without a leader right now. The Liberal Party are without a leader.

Their leader took a walk in the snow just before Christmas. Popular thing to do. Yeah, the Liberal Party leader just resigned before Christmas. And it seems that there's going to be not necessarily a race, though. There is only one candidate so far. So if there isn't a race, the new liberal leader would be elected mid-Fibur. I think it's really important for people to understand that the leader in the poll for over a year now has been posed St. Charles Amandon for the Parts Quebeccois, who wants to put forward a referendum on Quebec sovereignty during his first mandate. At least it's what he's promising to do now.

And so for the liberals and the federalists in Quebec to have a liberal party that isn't in Schambul was seen as urgent by many. by many supporters. And now that the CEQ doesn't have a leader, there's going to be also a lot of activity in the next days to try to figure out who's going to be the succession as an interim leader for the CAQ and whether there's going to be a leadership race there as well. And just briefly, then, what does it mean for the rest of Canada?

Because the rest of the nation is watching, given what you just said, which is that the PQ is promising a referendum, and they're leading in the polls. The PQ is promising a referendum. A lot of people would have missed that Yves Francois Blanchet, from the Black Quebecoa, to the end of the year interview saying that English Canada was more of a threat to Quebec than Donald Trump

and the United States. And now January he started and we're seeing what everyone else is seeing. And so I think what's going to be the question of the year for Quebecers who are nationalists is precisely that. Everything that's happening in the U.S. is transforming how people see what a danger is. And I think that's going to have, as the White House is white housing, it's going to change.

I think it's going to make Canadian politics, like Quebec politics, very volatile. I don't know whether you thought it was going to be a quiet start to 2026. It has not been a quiet start to 2026. I'm not sure what else you, I don't know what else you predicted, but who knows, well, we'll come down the pipe. In the meantime, Emily, it's good to speak with you again. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. Bye-bye. Emily, Nicola, is a call on us for Lédivore. She was in Montreal. This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30am at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.ca.ca slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway.

Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.