Editing Parti Québécois (section)

===2014 defeat===
Based on the charter's growing popularity among francophones, Marois called an early election for 7 April 2014 in an attempt to win a majority government.  Despite leading in the polls when the writ was dropped, the campaign went badly due to several mishaps. The recruitment of [[star candidate]] [[Pierre Karl Péladeau]], whose comments made sovereignty and the prospect of another referendum a focus of the campaign, as well as feminist [[Janette Bertrand]] suggesting that wealthy Muslim men were taking over swimming pools, among other incidents badly hurt the PQ.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://calgaryherald.com/news/Leader+Pauline+Marois+campaign+goes+from+catastrophic+Quebec/9686637/story.html |title=Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois' campaign goes from bad to catastrophic in Quebec election |access-date=26 January 2019 |archive-date=23 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923231101/http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Leader+Pauline+Marois+campaign+goes+from+catastrophic+Quebec/9686637/story.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Marois' government was defeated by the Liberals, led by [[Philippe Couillard]], in the [[2014 Quebec general election|2014 provincial election]] which resulted in a Liberal majority government. The PQ won 25% of the vote and 30 seats, its worst result in terms of popular vote since [[1970 Quebec general election|1970]]. Marois lost her own seat, and announced her intention to resign as PQ leader that night.<ref>{{cite news|title=Pauline Marois resigns as PQ leader after crushing defeat|url=http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/pauline-marois-resigns-as-pq-leader-after-crushing-defeat-1.1765703|access-date=8 April 2014|newspaper=CTV News|date=7 April 2014}}</ref>

[[Stéphane Bédard]] was chosen interim parliamentary leader by the PQ caucus on 10 April 2014.<ref name=bedard>{{cite news|title=PQ elects Stephane Bedard to interim leader post|url=http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/pq-elects-stephane-bedard-to-interim-leader-post-1.1770213|access-date=10 April 2014|newspaper=CTV News|date=10 April 2014}}</ref>

In the 20 October 2014 [[Lévis (provincial electoral district)|Lévis]] by-election, PQ candidate Alexandre Bégin came in third place, with 8.28% of the popular vote, only narrowly beating Québec Solidaire.<ref>{{cite news|last=Vendeville|first=Geoffrey|url=https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/caq-holds-the-fort-in-levis-byelection|title=CAQ holds the fort in Lévis byelection|newspaper=[[The Montreal Gazette]]|date=21 October 2014|access-date=21 October 2014}}</ref>