It looks like the Parti Québécois have won government with a minority legislature, which is at least better than their winning a majority and using that to do a bunch of very bad things over the next few years. The governing CAQ were wiped off the map, while both the Quebec Liberals did better than anticipated, and the Quebec Conservatives have made gains, as did Quebec Solidaire. It was a change election, but unfortunately the options for change were not great.

Unfortunately, while you’re going to have a lot of profiles in the next few days about the rise of PSPP and the return of the PQ after they were nearly wiped out in the last election, much of the dialogue save a few outlets are going to be pretty mute about the fact that what underpinned the PQ campaign was outright racism, and that the foundations for this were laid by the CAQ running an ethnic nationalist regime for two successive legislatures while nobody could be bothered to call it out. And now PSPP is going to try and do stupid, unconstitutional things like try to “abolish the monarchy” in the province, and I’m sure there will be a wholly inadequate response to that as well.

Meanwhile, because a bunch of people are going to focus on the popular vote figures from this election result, we’re going to see the electoral reform nerds rise up again, and it’s going to be incredibly tiresome. A reminder: The popular vote is not a real thing. It’s a logical fallacy, because this is not one election, it’s 127 separate but simultaneous elections, and just aggregating the results in spite of the fact that you had different numbers of parties and people on the ballots in each riding means you’re making false comparisons across the board. We elect individuals, not parties, in spite of what people think, and that matters. But everyone is going to distort how the system works over the next few weeks amidst all of the hand-wringing, so I fully expect this to work my last nerve.

I am going to have to spend the next number of weeks reminding everyone that the popular vote is not a real number. It's a logical fallacy because this was not one election, it was 127 separate elections that happened at the same time. Adding them up is not a meaningful number.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-10-06T03:58:39.965Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-10-05T19:08:01.723Z

My Latest:

My weekend column recounts what was said and not said at the Independent Senators Group’s tenth anniversary discussion, and what it says about the “independent” Senate.

For National Magazine, I recount the speeches during the Supreme Court of Canada’s ceremonial opening of the judicial year.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian bomb attacks on Kharkiv yesterday killed six. They also attacked a bridge in Kyiv, and two cargo ships in Odesa. Ukrainian drones have delivered more food aid to occupied Oleshky, which is being starved by Russian forces.

Noteworthy:

• The Globe and Mail have dug into the extent of American involvement in the Alberta separatist movement, including what separatists were offering in US meetings.
• Andrew Leach details how American influencers are eyeing a separate Alberta for its resources, and have plans to turn it into a resource colony to fatten themselves on.
• Kevin Carmichael takes lessons from Finland on how Canada can build itself a new economy rather than continue in the same resource extraction rut we’ve been in.
• Philippe Lagassé muses about ways a PQ government could make the Crown “invisible” in the province if they can’t abolish the monarchy there outright.
• Justin Ling outlines the threat that PSPP and the PQ pose to the rest of Canada.

The Beaverton goes harder than anyone in legacy media could ever.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-10-02T16:59:52.183Z

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