Liberals win west Quebec by a landslide en route to majority

Quebec Liberals held onto all five seats in the Outaouais in convincing fashion, as both the Parti Québécois and Coalition Avenir Québec saw their support evaporate in the region.

In 2012, Liberal Alexandre Iracà won Papineau riding with just 167 votes over Jean-Francois Primeau of the Parti Québécois. But this time around, the vote wasn't close.

Fellow incumbents Stephanie Vallée (Gatineau), Maryse Gaudreault (Hull) and Marc Carriere (Chapleau) also won convincing victories.

In Pontiac, first-time candidate André Fortin replaced Charlotte L'Ecuyer as the Liberal candidate and also scored a convincing victory, earning more than 22,000 more votes than his nearest rival (and 75 per cent of the total popular vote) with 167 of 169 polls reporting.

During the campaign, many people in the region said it was the possibility of a referendum — and not the Charter of Values or the economy — that was the top issue on their minds.

Support for the PQ dropped across all five ridings, as did support for the CAQ. Québec Solidaire enjoyed modest gains but still finished fourth in all five ridings.

Voter turnout in west Quebec on Monday was lower than the provincial average.

According to preliminary results, 64.66 per cent of eligible voters in the region cast ballots, compared to a province-wide turnout of 71.43 per cent.

That translates to 176,594 votes cast in the Outaouais out of a possible 273,128.

Pontiac saw the highest voter turnout in the region at 68.22 per cent. Chapleau saw the lowest at 62.95 per cent. Elsewhere, turnout was 63.55 per cent in Papineau; 63.78 per cent in Hull; and 65.1 per cent in Gatineau.

Overall turnout in the region was down slightly from the last provincial election in 2012, when 65 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots.