Quebec Liberals have chosen former MP Pablo Rodriguez as their next leader after voting closed Saturday.
Rodriguez bested opponent Charles Milliard in the second round taking 52.3 per cent of the points allocated.
Speaking at the leadership convention in Quebec City, Rodriguez thanked interim leader Marc Tanguay for holding down the fort since Dominique Anglade stepped down as leader in 2022. He called his new role the “honour of a lifetime” and said a new era is starting for the party and the province of Quebec.
“We need to look toward the future, to build tomorrow’s Quebec for our children and grandchildren,” said Rodriguez.
Voter turnout among members, who have been casting preferential ballots since Monday, reached 70 per cent. Votes are weighed by riding and age, meaning there’s pressure for candidates to appeal to Quebec’s different regions and young people.
In a post to X, Quebec Premier François Legault congratulated Rodriguez on his win, saying he looked forward to collaborating with him on issues that matter to Quebecers. He also bid a fond farewell to Tanguay, saying it was a pleasure debating with him.
Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon also congratulated Rodriguez on X, adding that Quebec is at a crossroads in regards to its linguistic, cultural and financial future and that the status quo is no longer acceptable.
Rodriguez ran on a platform of unifying the party and making it more efficient to defeat Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) in the 2026 provincial election.
The Liberals suffered back-to-back defeats to the CAQ in 2018 and 2022. The party has struggled to connect to francophone voters in regions outside of Montreal, and has failed to benefit from Legault’s waning popularity in recent years.
Instead, the sovereigntist Parti Québécois has surged in the polls and seems poised to form the next government, despite holding just five of the 125 seats in the provincial legislature.
Running against Rodriguez was Milliard who is a pharmacist by training and the former head of the Quebec Federation of Chambers of Commerce. He captured 28.7 per cent of total points in the first round and 47.7 per cent in the second.
MNA André Fortin, who backed Milliard and worked on his campaign, said he was disappointed by the loss, but the race made him hopeful for the future, adding that Rodriguez has “great energy” and a lot of experience in politics.
For Fortin, Milliard embodied the renewal he says the party needs.
“Our party needed a race, our party needed to re-energize itself,” he said.
“There seems to be a constant energy this weekend here and now we just need it to keep going until the next election.”
Karl Blackburn came just short of second place in the first round. He represented Roberval at the National Assembly from 2003 until 2007 under Jean Charest’s Liberals. He’s also the former president of a Quebec employers’ group, the Conseil du patronat du Québec.
Speaking after he was eliminated from the race, Blackburn said the new leader will have the “colossal” tasks of reunifying the party and bringing it closer to the regions. He said he’d like to run in the next election and flip the Roberval riding to the Liberals from the CAQ.
At the end of the first round, international trade lawyer Marc Bélanger came in fourth place and Mario Roy, an economist and farmer, in fifth.
Rodriguez was first elected to the House of Commons in 2004, representing the Honoré-Mercier riding in Montreal. As part of former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government, he held various ministerial roles in cabinet, including most recently minister of transport.
Rodriguez left cabinet and began sitting in the House as an Independent MP in September 2024, after he announced he was pivoting to provincial politics and throwing his hat into the Quebec Liberals’ leadership race.
