Quebec general election, 1985

The Quebec general election of 1985 was held on December 2, 1985, to elect members of the National Assembly of the Province of Quebec, Canada. The Quebec Liberal Party, led by former premier Robert Bourassa, defeated the incumbent Parti Québécois, led by Pierre-Marc Johnson.

This election marked the comeback of Robert Bourassa, whose political career had been thought to be over after losing the 1976 general election and resigning as Liberal leader. However, Bourassa personally failed to win his own seat in the Bertrand electoral district, and had to run in a by-election one month later in the safe Saint-Laurent electoral district. The 1985 Quebec general election result produced by far the largest majority of any Canadian legislative election (both in terms of the number of seats and percentage of seats) by a winning party whose leader failed to win his own seat.

Johnson, son of former Union Nationale premier Daniel Johnson, Sr. was unable to revive the PQ's fortune after he succeeded René Lévesque as party leader and premier. Pierre-Marc's brother, Daniel Johnson, Jr, later became leader of the Liberal Party and briefly served as premier.

Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1981	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change	Liberal	Robert Bourassa	122	42	99	+135.7%	1 910 307	55.99%	+9.92%	Parti Québécois	Pierre-Marc Johnson	122	80	23	-71.3%	1 320 008	38.69%	-10.6%	New Democratic		90	*	-	*	82 588	2.42%		Progressive Conservative		48	*	-	*	35 210	1.03%		Parti indépendantiste		39	*	-	*	15 423	0.45%		Christian Socialism		103	*	-	*	11 712	0.34%		Union Nationale		19	-	-	-	7 759	0.23%	-3.77%	Green		10	*	-	*	4 613	0.14%		Humanist		17	*	-	*	3 050	0.09%		Commonwealth of Canada		28	*	-	*	2 240	0.07%		Socialist		10	*	-	*	1 809	0.05%		United Social Credit		12	-	-	-	1 650	0.05%	+0.01%	Communist		10	-	-	-	834	0.02%	-	colspan="2"|Independents	22	-	-	-	9 380	0.28%	+0.16%	colspan="2"|No designation	14	-	-	-	5 024	0.15%
Total			666	122	122	-	3 411 607	100%
Source: Elections Quebec

Note:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

{{Sequence| prev=1981| list=List of Quebec general elections| next=1989

See also

* List of Quebec premiers
* Politics of Quebec
* Timeline of Quebec history

External link

* CBC TV video clip