Fréchette takes aim at ‘pro-natalist’ policies of PQ, Conservative leaders

Coalition Avenir Québec Leader Christine Fréchette speaks at an electoral summit in Quebec City organized by Quebec’s union of municipalities, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. Quebecers are going to the polls for a general election on Oct. 5. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot – The Canadian Press

MONTREAL — Coalition Avenir Québec Leader Christine Fréchette sought to paint the leaders of the Parti Québécois and Conservatives with the same blue brush on Sunday, pointing to what she characterized as their economic austerity and pro-natalist policies.

“One wants a chainsaw, the other wants an axe,” Fréchette said of PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime on Sunday, as the provincial election campaign ramped up on the cusp of its final two-week stretch.

“Both are pursuing austerity-based approaches that will lead to closures and massive layoffs in the health and education sectors,” she claimed during a media scrum in Quebec City.

All five of the province’s major political parties except for Québec Solidaire are proposing cuts to the civil service to varying degrees.

The Conservatives aim to cut 20,000 bureaucratic jobs, the CAQ 2,900 and the Liberals 12,000. The PQ has proposed reducing public sector compensation costs by 2.5 per cent. All insist that public services will not be affected.

Recent polls point to the potential formation of a minority government led by the Parti Québécois, were an election held today. Asked by reporters whether she believes the PQ and Conservatives could form a ruling coalition, Fréchette replied: “Elements of that are taking shape and becoming apparent.

“It looks like there is co-ordination, a coming together, and converging lines are emerging,” she said.

Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon speaks at an electoral summit in Quebec City organized by Quebec’s union of municipalities, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. Quebecers are going to the polls for a general election on Oct. 5. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

Part of that convergence lies in her two opponents’ “pro-natalist policies,” as she described them. On Sunday, the PQ rolled out plans to offer families $350 for a third child and another $350 for a fourth.

The Conservatives have promised $100 per week per child to families who keep their young children at home.

“As for offering a ‘baby bonus,’ that’s already been tried in Quebec. We know the impact it had — it didn’t measure up — so I don’t see why anyone would want to go down that road,” said Fréchette.

“Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is championing a much more conservative approach than what we saw in previous years.”

She also highlighted his opposition along with Duhaime’s to the multibillion-dollar federal high-speed rail project planned between Toronto and Quebec City.

Though the definition is flexible, pronatalism often refers to a controversial ideology that argues government policy should incentivize people to give birth, a belief currently ascendant on the American right and championed by U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance and tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Duhaime has repeatedly touted his belief in financial help for growing families.

“Our nation has prospered thanks to its large, close-knit families and the human-scale social safety net they provided,” the Conservative platform states.

St-Pierre Plamondon, as part of his natal announcement on Sunday morning, pointed to the province’s birthrate, which currently sits near historic lows.

The fertility rate hit 1.36 children per woman last year, just above the record low of 1.35 in 2024, according to Quebec’s statistics agency.

“Young Quebecers who want to start a family are telling us point-blank: we can’t afford it,” St-Pierre Plamondon said in the off-island Montreal suburb of Saint-Eustache.

He also took aim at the “taboo” surrounding his desire to boost the birthrate.

“Every time I’ve spoken about the birthrate, it’s sparked controversy. It’s not about telling anyone how to live their life; it’s about enabling those who want children to have them in an environment where the cost of living has spiralled out of control under the CAQ,” he said.

Quebec Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime greets supporters as he arrives at an election debate in Montreal, on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

On top of the baby bonus, the PQ leader rolled out plans for 10,000 new subsidized daycare spots in four years, which would bring the total number of new spaces available by 2030 to 25,000 — including the 15,000 spaces already in the pipeline.

St-Pierre Plamondon also pushed back Sunday against Fréchette’s assertion a day earlier that Quebecers are warming up to fracking. He cited a party-commissioned poll from Segma Recherche that found 65 per cent of respondents would not want shale gas wells near their homes.

On that front, Fréchette could have more in common with Duhaime, a staunch advocate of fracking.

However, Fréchette was careful to distance herself from her Conservative opponent on the issue, saying she has “reservations.”

“I have guidelines, and they will have to be respected if we ever decide to move forward,” she said Saturday.

There were also pledges on Sunday to either back or rein in several industries.

Liberal Leader Charles Milliard, speaking near the shores of Lac Saint-Jean in northern Quebec, said he would reform the province’s forestry regime after a volatile decade for the sector.

In Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., Québec Solidaire co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal promised to regulate the real estate industry by ending so-called blind bidding and capping brokers’ commissions.

Meanwhile, Fréchette unveiled a maritime strategy that would furnish $300 million in investments for port infrastructure and the St. Lawrence River, as well as $90 million for the shipbuilding industry.

Quebecers head to the polls for an election on Oct. 5.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2026.

— With files from Thomas Laberge and Caroline Plante in Quebec City and Julia Myles in Saint-Eustache, Que.

The Canadian Press

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