Quebec byelection in former minister’s seat to be called on Tuesday

Parti Quebecois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon (left) along with Terrebonne candidate Catherine Gentilcore (centre) and MNA Pascal Bérubé. The trio want to retake the riding left vacant by former CAQ minister Pierre Fitzgibbon. (Patrice Bergeron / The Canadian Press) (Patrice Bergeron/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

The byelection in former super minister Pierre Fitzgibbon’s Terrebonne riding will be called on Tuesday.

The Canadian Press confirmed the information in the morning.

Voting will take place on March 17.

The government had little time left to call a byelection, since Fitzgibbon resigned last September. The government has six months in which to call a byelection following the departure of an MNA.

The Parti Québécois (PQ), which has its eye on this riding, has been asking the government for several months to call the election.

According to poll aggregator Qc125, the PQ enjoys a significant lead in Terrebonne. The Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ), which has held the riding since 2018, is trailing by more than ten percentage points.

The PQ candidate, party president Catherine Gentilcore, has been known for several months.

For its part, the CAQ has chosen Alex Gagné, president and founder of À deux pas de la réussite, an organization that fights against school dropouts.

The other candidates are: Virginie Bouchard for the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), Nadia Poirier for Québec solidaire (QS) and Ange Claude Bigilimana for the Quebec Conservative Party.

Between 1976 and 2018, Terrebonne was always PQ, except for a brief interlude from 2007 to 2008, when the riding was represented by Mario Dumont’s Action démocratique du Québec.

In 2018,CAQist Pierre Fitzgibbon won the riding from incumbent PQ MNA Mathieu Traversy.

He was re-elected in 2022.

The government had until March 5 to call the by-election. The estimated cost of such an election is $725,000.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Feb. 11, 2025.