Quebec voters turning to CAQ over PQ, according to new poll

A new CROP poll is suggesting some Quebecers have turned away from the Parti Québécois (PQ) since Jean-François Lisée became the party’s leader.

The poll shows the PQ dropping below the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) Wednesday, pushing the second opposition party two percentage points ahead.

READ MORE: Courting the English vote: PQ, CAQ insist they’re the best choice in Quebec

This is the first time this has happened in the CAQ’s five-year history as a party.

The poll found that support for the PQ under Lisée has dropped from 30 per cent of decided voters asked to 24 per cent since October.

READ MORE: ‘In Quebec, we speak French,’ CAQ proposes mandatory language classes for immigrants

The CAQ, under leader François Legault, gained four points, moving from 22 per cent support to 26 per cent.

The Liberals are still well in the lead, dropping one point from 37 per cent to 36 per cent.

“It seems when you look at the tendency, Quebecers are supporting the way we are doing it,” said Liberal House Leader, Jean-Marc Fournier.

READ MORE: Lisée called out for wanting English CEGEPS to cater to anglophones first

Lisée insisted he doesn’t trust the poll, saying the Liberals should have dropped more after recent allegations of fraud among past party fundraisers.

“Two weeks ago, another poll showed the PQ would form a government and somehow people said, ‘yeah, you know this scandal makes us like the Liberals better.’ It’s tough,” he said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Two weeks ago, another poll showed the PQ would form a government and somehow people said, 'yeah, you know this scandal makes us like the Liberals better.' It's tough," he said.

“It’s never easy between electoral campaigns to reach all the voters,” said CAQ leader, Francois Legault. “So we have to be careful, but with all these scandals, I’m sure it will be very tough for the Liberal Party in 2018.”

The poll suggests that the Liberals would have a comfortably majority, should an election be called now.

READ MORE: CAQ courts English vote, says it is ‘nationalist’ alternative to Liberals

Québec Solidaire gained two points.

“What interests us is all those who don’t vote anymore,” said Quebec Solidaire MNA, Amir Khadir.

Like all other parties recently, they too are now reaching out to the coveted English vote to steal support from the Liberals.

“I hope in the future that anglophones and allophones would consider that a small party like ours that question this culture that has been shared by the Parti Quebecois and the Liberals – that they do have an alternative,” Khadir said.

CROP surveyed 1,000 people online between Nov. 16 and Nov. 21.