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Québec election 2026 in Papineau: the Parti Québécois wins by 556 votes

Isabelle Millette (PQ) won Papineau by 556 votes over Liberal candidate Isabelle Sabourin. The PQ will form a minority government, and the CAQ retains no seats.

By La Petite Nation · October 11, 2026 · Who we are

A ballot dropped into a ballot box in front of the Québec flag — AI-generated illustration (ChatGPT), La Petite Nation

Four years ago, the CAQ won Papineau with more than half of the vote. On October 5, 2026, the riding went to the Parti Québécois by a narrow margin: 556 votes separate the elected candidate from the second-place finisher. Across Québec, the change is even more pronounced. The PQ will form a minority government, and the CAQ did not elect any members.

Every number below comes from Élections Québec's results file, last updated October 8, 2026 at 10:13 a.m. All 20,704 polls have been counted, and the file indicates that the results are final, following the official addition of the votes. A judicial recount remains possible in ridings where the margin is very narrow. If a figure changes, we will correct it.

Papineau: Isabelle Millette (PQ) elected

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Isabelle Millette	Parti Québécois	11,181	30.17%
Isabelle Sabourin	Quebec Liberal Party	10,625	28.67%
Michel Kadri	Conservative Party of Québec	8,143	21.97%
Linda Gauthier	Coalition Avenir Québec	4,167	11.24%
Benoit Renaud	Québec solidaire	2,625	7.08%
Julie Gomez	Independent	316	0.85%

Margin: 556 votes, or 1.5 points.
Turnout: 61.65%, with 60,947 registered voters, 37,057 valid ballots and 518 rejected ballots.
No incumbent on the ballot. Mathieu Lacombe, elected for the CAQ in 2022, did not seek re-election.

It was in fact a three-way race. Conservative candidate Michel Kadri finished less than 2,500 votes behind the leader, a notable result in a riding where his party received 13% of the vote four years ago.

Compared with 2022

Papineau	2022	2026
Winner	Mathieu Lacombe (CAQ), 52.83%	Isabelle Millette (PQ), 30.17%
Margin	14,627 votes	556 votes
Turnout	59.44%	61.65%
PQ	10.23%	30.17%
Liberal	8.41%	28.67%
Conservative	13.27%	21.97%
CAQ	52.83%	11.24%
QS	13.78%	7.08%

Please note that the electoral map was revised for 2026. Papineau's boundaries are no longer exactly the same as in 2022. The comparison therefore indicates a trend rather than an exact vote-for-vote calculation.

Who votes in Papineau

According to Élections Québec's polling-division file (July 2026), all 25 municipalities of the MRC de Papineau are in the riding, from Thurso up to Duhamel and from Montebello to Val-des-Bois. The riding also takes in part of the City of Gatineau, which accounts for just over half the voters (33,087 of 60,571 on the July list), plus L'Ange-Gardien in the Collines-de-l'Outaouais.

La Petite-Nation's vote therefore carries real weight, but it does not determine the result on its own. The file does not specify which parts of Gatineau are included; we therefore make no assumption on that point.

Québec: a Parti Québécois minority government

The National Assembly grows from 125 to 127 seats. A majority requires 64.

Party	Seats 2026	Vote 2026	Seats 2022	Vote 2022
Parti Québécois	59	28.02%	3	14.61%
Quebec Liberal Party	40	24.23%	21	14.37%
Conservative Party of Québec	19	20.66%	0	12.91%
Québec solidaire	9	12.42%	11	15.43%
Coalition Avenir Québec	0	13.35%	90	40.98%

Province-wide turnout: 66.92%, up from 66.15% in 2022. Of 6,495,984 registered voters, 4,347,703 cast a ballot.
Five parties cleared 10% and none reached 30%.
The CAQ, which held 90 seats, finishes with 13% of the vote and no members. All 43 of its incumbents who ran again were defeated.
The closest riding in the province is Vachon, won by the Liberals by 10 votes over the PQ.

The leaders

Leader	Party	Riding	Result
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon	PQ	Camille-Laurin	Won by 5,423
Charles Milliard	Liberal	Orford	Won by 4,416
Éric Duhaime	Conservative	Bellechasse	Won by 17,221
Ruba Ghazal	QS	Mercier	Won by 11,930
Christine Fréchette	CAQ	Trois-Rivières	Lost by 499

The outgoing premier thus loses her own riding to PQ candidate Jean Pellerin.

The Outaouais chooses the Liberals, with the exception of Papineau

Riding	Elected	Party	%	Margin	2022
Papineau	Isabelle Millette	PQ	30.17%	556	CAQ
Gatineau	David Logue	Liberal	41.67%	7,239	CAQ
Hull	Sacha Cannon	Liberal	42.50%	8,550	CAQ
Chapleau	Michel Langevin	Liberal	37.46%	6,076	CAQ
Pontiac	André Fortin	Liberal	61.36%	14,985	Liberal

The Liberals took Gatineau, Hull and Chapleau from the CAQ and held Pontiac. Papineau is the only Outaouais riding not won by the Liberals.

Map of Québec by riding

We drew these maps from Élections Québec's official boundaries for the 127 ridings; they are coloured by the winning party. Hover over or tap a riding to display its name and the party elected.

All of Québec
Southern Québec, easier to read for the Outaouais
Greater Montréal

We chose the colours; they are not those of the parties. For official results, poll by poll, please visit Élections Québec's results site.

Contains open data granted under the Chief Electoral Officer's Open Data User Licence available at http://dgeq.org/en/. The fact of granting the licence in no way implies that the Chief Electoral Officer approves the use made of the open data.

Sources

2026 results, Élections Québec official file (updated October 8, 2026, 10:13 a.m.)
2022 results, Élections Québec archive
2026 candidates
2026 riding boundaries and Élections Québec open data
How results become official

Thurso Papineauville Montebello Saint-André-Avellin Chénéville Plaisance Ripon Val-des-Bois

Sources

The facts in this story come from these public sources. Every place and event mentioned has its own page, with its sources and the date it was checked. Legal notice