Quebec voters have given a majority mandate to the Liberal Party, led by neurosurgeon Philippe Couillard, after an election campaign focused on fears the separatist Parti Quebecois would seek another vote on splitting from Canada.
The Liberals were elected in 70 of 125 seats according to unofficial results compiled by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. The Parti Quebecois was reduced to 30 seats as incumbents across the French-speaking province, including Premier Pauline Marois, were defeated. Marois announced she would step down as party leader.
The results complete a comeback for the Liberals, who were defeated by Marois less than two years ago. Couillard, 56, swept to power by stoking fears of another referendum and stressing the need to promote growth in Canadas second most-populous province.
All Quebec has won by giving itself a stable government, Couillard told supporters after the votes were counted. He pledged to run an administration focused on employment and prosperity, and to work to overcome linguistic divisions.
Couillards Liberals took 41 percent of the vote according to preliminary results, compared with 25 percent for the Parti Quebecois. The Coalition Avenir Quebec, led by businessman Francois Legault, was elected in 22 seats with 23 percent of the vote, while Quebec Solidaire, another separatist party, was elected in two seats and was leading in one other.
The extra yield investors demand to hold Quebec bonds instead of those from Ontario, Canadas most-populous province, has declined during the campaign as the prospect of another Parti Quebecois victory dimmed. The Canadian dollar rose to its strongest level in six weeks against the U.S. dollar last week.
The Quebec election dispelled fears of separation, leaving Quebec bonds still at a discount versus Ontario, said Sebastien Galy, senior currency strategist with Societe Generale in New York, in a note to clients. This election wont help the oversupply in housing in Quebec, but it will likely help give a positive impulse to its economy.
Liberals who were elected included Carlos Leitao, former chief economist of Montreal-based Laurentian Bank of Canada, who was ranked the second-most accurate forecaster of the U.S. economy by Bloomberg in 2008. Jacques Daoust, a former executive at Laurentian Bank and Montreal-based National Bank of Canada, also won, as did Martin Coiteux, an economist who worked at the Bank of Canadas Montreal office.
The Liberals promised to create 250,000 jobs in Quebec over five years, according to the Liberal website. The province added 204,900 jobs over the past five years through March, Statistics Canada data shows. Quebecs economy added 15,100 jobs last month, second behind British Columbia, the statistics agency said April 4. That pushed Quebecs unemployment rate down to 7.6 percent from 7.8 percent in February, compared with 6.9 percent for all of Canada.
Quebec is budgeting a C$1.75 billion ($1.59 billion) deficit for the fiscal year that began April 1. Couillard has vowed to balance the budget in fiscal 2015-16. To get there, he plans to reduce spending by C$1.3 billion over two years, including 500 job cuts in the education ministry and a 10 percent reduction in bureaucracy of the health ministry.
Excerpt from:
Quebec Liberals Defeat Canada Separatists in Election