Quebec general election, 1998

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The Quebec general election of 1998 was held on November 30, 1998, to elect members of the National Assembly of the Province of Quebec, Canada. The incumbent Parti Québécois, led by Lucien Bouchard, won re-election, defeating the Quebec Liberal Party, led by Jean Charest.

After the narrow defeat of the PQ's proposal for political independence for Quebec in an economic union with the rest of Canada in the 1995 Quebec referendum, PQ leader Jacques Parizeau resigned. Bouchard left federal politics, where he was leader of the Bloc Québécois party in the Canadian House of Commons, to lead the Parti Québécois and become premier.

Jean Charest had also left federal politics, where he had been leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Charest was initially seen as a bad fit for the Quebec Liberal Party, and for provinicial politics. He later overcame this perception.

In terms of the number of seats won by each of the two parties, the result was almost identical to the previous 1994 general election. However, this time the Liberals actually won a slightly larger percentage of the popular vote, but nonetheless far fewer seats.

Mario Dumont, leader of the Action démocratique du Québec, repeated his success in winning his own seat, as he had done in the 1994 general election. However, his party also repeated its failure to elect any other member apart from its leader.

[edit] Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	1994	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Parti Québécois	Lucien Bouchard	124	77	76	-1.3%	1,744,240	42.87%	-1.88%
	Liberal	Jean Charest	125	47	48	+2.1%	1,771,858	43.55%	-0.85%
	ADQ	Mario Dumont	125	1	1	-	480,636	11.81%	+5.35%
	PDS		97	-	-	-	24,097	0.59%	-0.26%
	Equality		24	-	-	-	12,543	0.31%	+0.02%
	Bloc pot		24	*	-	*	9,944	0.24%	*
	Natural Law		35	-	-	-	5,369	0.13%	-0.72%
	Marxist-Leninist		24	-	-	-	2,747	0.07%	+0.04%
	Innovator		20	-	-	-	2,484	0.06%	+0.01%
	Communist		20	-	-	-	2,113	0.05%	+0.02%
	Independent/no designation		39	-	-	-	12,441	0.31%	-1.38%
Total			657	125	125	-	4,068,472	100%
Source: Elections Quebec

Note:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Party		Seats	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Sixth	Seventh	Eighth	Ninth	Tenth
	Parti québécois	76	47	1
	Liberal	48	75	2
	Action démocratique	1	2	117	5
	Democratic socialist				56	33	6	2
	Equality		1	3	12	1	4	2		1
	Bloc pot			1	17	6
	Natural law				7	14	10	3	1
	Marxist-leninist				2	5	11	2	4
	Innovator				2	7	8	3
	Communist				2	3	4	6	3	2
	Independents			1	9	14	9	3	2		1