Christine Fréchette has formally been sworn in as Quebec’s premier, the second lady to carry the job within the province’s historical past.
In a speech on the legislature Wednesday, Fréchette promised to give attention to rising Quebec’s financial system and to control as a nationalist.
“Turning into premier is way more than only a job; the truth is, it’s an immense duty. The duty to serve our nation to one of the best of my data and talent, and above all to take care of the pursuits of the folks of Quebec each single day,” she mentioned.
The 55-year-old follows within the footsteps of the Parti Québécois’s Pauline Marois, who was Quebec’s first feminine premier from 2012 to 2014.
In a cellphone interview, Marois mentioned she felt a “deep satisfaction” seeing Fréchette tackle the torch, including it’s a win for all ladies.
“It gained’t be simple for her,” Marois mentioned. “I believe she actually must put her imaginative and prescient and her perspective ahead. There must be consistency, coherence and dedication in order that we all know what her imaginative and prescient for Quebec is. The place she desires to take us, as a nation, as a folks.”
Fréchette, who positioned herself as a centrist financial candidate, defeated Bernard Drainville within the race to interchange François Legault, who created the Coalition Avenir Québec in 2011 and had been premier since 2018.
First elected in 2022 within the Sanguinet using south of Montreal, Fréchette held the financial system and immigration portfolios in Legault’s cupboard. Previous to becoming a member of the Coalition Avenir Québec, she headed the Chambre de commerce de l’Est de Montréal, a enterprise affiliation that promotes financial improvement within the metropolis’s east finish.
Chatting with occasion members, Fréchette mirrored on rising up in Trois-Rivières, about midway between Montreal and Quebec Metropolis, within the Nineteen Seventies. As a member of Gen X, she mentioned, she “by no means once more desires a technology to really feel like they have been sacrificed.”
She added that she sees a number of parallels between the problems she confronted rising up — world battle, sluggish financial progress and excessive youth unemployment — and people of immediately.
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She mentioned she understands what it’s prefer to stay within the areas the place entry to companies, well being care, employment and housing isn’t all the time simple. She mentioned having frolicked in Quebec Metropolis and Montreal, two financial drivers, has proven her that each the cities and the areas should thrive for Quebec to advance.
She additionally spoke about her father, who spent his profession working at Hydro-Québec. She mentioned the government-owned public utility firm is proof that “a robust public establishment can change the destiny of a nation” by robust jobs and internationally acknowledged experience.
“Above all, it’s an instance of what Quebec is able to reaching when it builds on its strengths and skills. It’s this imaginative and prescient that guides my financial dedication,” she mentioned.
She mentioned Quebec-made services shall be required in authorities tenders, from timber and aluminum to meals and labour forces.
“This selection isn’t ideological. It’s financial and it’s nationalist,” she mentioned.
Fréchette additionally pledged to defend Quebec’s tradition and the French language, saying it unites and defines Quebecers.
Amongst different guarantees, she mentioned she would fund an extra a million hours in at-home care, develop telemedicine and reduce pink tape for small and medium-sized companies.
On immigration, Fréchette mentioned she has all the time believed in a “humane and accountable” strategy. She mentioned it was essential to respect Quebec’s capability to welcome and combine newcomers whereas assembly labour wants, notably exterior metropolis centres.
“I consider the lady who grew up watching Janette Bertrand, Diane Dufresne, Madeleine Poulin and Pauline Marois … this younger lady had no concept that at some point she can be standing right here,” Fréchette mentioned, referring to distinguished Quebec ladies of their fields.
“Right now, I pledge to control with ambition and dedication. And I pledge to construct a Quebec that lives as much as your efforts.”
The brand new premier mentioned she is going to title a cupboard subsequent week and intends to make not less than one announcement within the coming days associated to the price of dwelling.
She now faces the duty of boosting the fortunes of the CAQ, which is polling behind the Liberals, the Parti Québecois and the Conservatives forward of the Oct. 5 election.
Polling aggregator Qc125 predicts the CAQ, which Legault had positioned as a right-leaning nationalist however federalist occasion, is on observe to win zero seats.
In the meantime, the federalist Liberals and the separatist PQ are neck-and-neck.
Analysts say they’re anxious to see who Fréchette names to her cupboard after she veered the occasion away from identification politics to give attention to the financial system.
Although she maintained in her speech that she would make sure the safety of the French language and defend state secularism, she has beforehand mentioned she wouldn’t contemplate invoking closure on controversial payments just like the Quebec structure venture.
Fréchette, who has positioned herself as a extra poised politician who likes in depth session, has lower than six months to make her mark in a crowded political discipline earlier than the final election.
Jean-François Daoust, a professor at Université de Sherbrooke’s college of utilized politics, says there may be little distinction between Fréchette’s financial imaginative and prescient and Legault’s: Development earlier than redistribution with the state enjoying an essential function.
It’ll develop into extra clear what sort of change Fréchette will convey as soon as she finalizes her staff, Daoust provides.
“I’m considering, amongst different issues, of the ministry of the French language, the minister for immigration and the minister for justice,” he mentioned. “It’s under no circumstances clear whether or not she’ll appoint nationalists to deal with these key nationalist points.”
Political analyst Justine McIntyre provides she anticipated a rupture within the occasion after Frechette was named chief. She expects Frechette to toe the center floor as she shapes the occasion into her personal.
Each analysts count on Frechette to go after Liberal voters somewhat than the PQ.
“Now we have the PQ and the Conservative occasion who’re already speaking about points that the CAQ had been, the identification and so forth,” mentioned McIntyre. “She’s transferring it nearer to what the what the Liberals are doing.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed April 15, 2026.