Paul St-Pierre Plamondon
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, also known by his initials PSPP, is a Canadian lawyer, media personality, and politician who has served as the leader of the Parti Québécois since October 9, 2020. He represents Camille-Laurin in the National Assembly of Quebec.
Early life and education
Plamondon began his college studies at Collège André-Grasset and graduated in 1997. He holds bachelor's degrees in Civil Law and Common Law from McGill University, an MBA from Oxford University, and a Certificate in International Law from Lund University.In 2003, he was a volunteer prosecutor for the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights in Sucre, Bolivia. In 2005, he worked with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Belgium. Plamondon was also a lawyer in the litigation department of Stikeman Elliott, a national law firm.
In 2009, he joined the Delegatus law firm as vice-president and shareholder of the study. Recognized for his social involvement, St-Pierre Plamondon was awarded the title of Lawyer of the Year in 2010, in the pro bono category, at the annual conference of the Young Bar of Montreal to celebrate the "leaders of tomorrow".
Early career
In 2007, he co-founded Génération d'idées, a nonprofit thinking group whose mission is to engage young people from 20 to 35 in public debate by inviting them to express themselves on social themes in the various platforms of Génération d'idées. In 2009, with the aim of promoting Génération d'idées and to sound out the opinion of Québec's Generation Y, Plamondon visited 19 Québec cities in 63 days and gathered the thoughts of 500 young people. Following that exercise, he published the essay Des jeunes et l'avenir du Québec: les rêveries d'un promeneur solitaire.In 2011, he began as co-host of the radio show Génératrice on Radio-Canada’s [Ici Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|Radio-Canada Première|Première Chaîne]. In October 2011, the Génération d’idées group planted more than 250 brooms in front of the National Assembly in Québec City and stepped up public interventions to call for a public inquiry into the construction industry in Québec. Plamondon’s interventions in favour of this commission of inquiry led Radio-Canada to request that he be removed from the program as a co-host.
In 2012, he defended students on walkout in front of the courts and participated in the demonstration of lawyers against Bill 78. In September 2013, he resigned as president of Génération d’idées. In February 2014, Plamondon became a journalist for Les Affaires newspaper.
In October 2014, he published a second essay entitled Les Orphelins politiques: plaidoyer pour un renouveau du paysage politique québécois, in which he advocated for the emergence of a new movement that would fill the void felt by several political orphans. He is the author of several open letters and media interventions on various current issues, including politics.
Political beginnings
In 2016, Plamondon was a candidate in the 2016 Parti Québécois leadership race, finishing fourth with 6.84% support. One of his main commitments during this race was to reconnect the party with all Québécois people. Plamondon opposed holding a referendum on sovereignty during a PQ government's first mandate.On October 23, 2016, the leader of the Parti Québécois, Jean-François Lisée, announced the appointment of Pierre Plamondon to the position of Special Advisor to the leader. In this role, Plamondon recommended consulting the people of Québec on the renewal of the party and drafting, at the end of this process, a report and recommendations on the relaunch of the PQ. The open consultation was mostly aimed at the business community, particularly entrepreneurs and other professionals, members of Québec’s diversity, and those under the age of 40. After 162 consultations with more than 3,600 people, he tabled a report with 156 recommendations in April 2017. At the PQ National Congress in September 2017, 44 recommendations were accepted by the PQ National Executive Council. The majority of the other recommendations were adopted at the extraordinary PQ convention in Trois-Rivières in November 2019.
As the candidate for the Parti Québécois in the county of Prévost in the 2018 Quebec general election, Plamondon faced former Quebec Liberal Party minister Marguerite Blais, who now represented the Coalition Avenir Québec. During this local election campaign, Plamondon prioritized the environment, the quality of public services and support for families. Presented as a star contestant, he was defeated by Marguerite Blais.
Leader of the Parti Québécois
42nd Quebec LegislatureOn January 28, 2020, he officially announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Parti Québécois. He won the leadership race on October 9, 2020, with 56% of the vote in the third round. Plamondon this time unlike in 2016, pledged to hold a sovereignty referendum in the first mandate of a PQ government.
In early 2022, he announced that he would be a candidate in the riding of Camille-Laurin, in Montreal. On election night, he defeated Coalition Avenir Québec MNA Richard Campeau, aided by the lack of a QS candidate in the riding.
During the 2022 Quebec general election, he and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois from Québec solidaire faced some controversy for their use of the word nègre while they discussed academic freedom in schools and universities during a televised debate. The 2022 provincial election saw even further erosion and an unprecedented loss of support for the Parti Québécois. Not only did the party once again not form government or the official opposition, but it was reduced to its smallest-ever presence in the legislature, with only three seats won. The previous low was its second election, in 1973, where the party won six seats. The PQ lost its official party status and came in a distant fourth place. It won only 14 percent of the vote, its lowest ever. The movement of most voter support over to the CAQ and other nationalist parties put into question the party's relevance and its ability to survive in future.
43rd Quebec Legislature
Plamondon and the PQ, said after the general election in 2022 that they would not take the Oath of Allegiance upon attempting to take their seats in the National Assembly of Quebec, arguing, "you can't serve two masters at the same time." In response, the President of the National Assembly, François Paradis, asserted that the PQ MNAs were required to recite the oath or risk expulsion from the legislature. On 1 December 2022, PQ MNAs continued to refuse and were stopped from entering the legislature. The Executive Council, occupied by the i=no party, headed by François Legault, thereafter tabled a bill that purported to amend the constitution of Canada so as to add to Section 128 of the Constitution Act, 1867—the clause requiring the Oath of Allegiance for legislators—a statement that the section does not apply to Quebec. That bill passed the assembly with unanimous consent on 6 December 2022. It remains unclear if the law has any effect.After the 2022 provincial election, the PQ held a leadership confidence vote in March 2023. Plamondon broke a record for the PQ votes of confidence, with 98.51% support. After the 2022 election, the PQ saw an increase in its support in polls, with them polling as the second largest party but still behind the CAQ. On October 2, 2023, the PQ won its fourth seat with its win in the 2023 Jean-Talon provincial by-election, with Pascal Paradis being elected MNA. Since November 2023, the PQ has been polling as the largest party, with support over 30%. Their polling has reportedly been affected by the 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico.
Plamondon has been described for scapegoating immigrants for problems caused by the Quebec government, unlike former PQ immigration minister Gerald Godin, who saw immigrants as the future of Quebec’s sovereigntist movement. In 2024, Plamondon called for a referendum on immigration. He also agreed with American president Donald Trump that immigrants from Canada were bringing fentanyl into USA. On September 11th 2025, letter was published in La Presse that included former PQ cabinet minister Louise Harel as one of the signatories as a response to an advertisement that PQ put out on immigration. It was taken out to remind that immigration is a complex topic and not to mislead the public. Plamondon called the letter a form of intimidation and referred to the signatories as part of the radical left. Plamondon was also critical when former Quebec City mayor Régis Labeaume, who wrote in Lapresse that he was using inflammatory rhetoric to win over the “white francophone” vote, by demanding Lapresse give him a column so that he can refute what he saw as the “defamatory allegations". The paper rejected Plamondon's demand. Former Montreal Gazette journalist Christopher Curtis revealed that Plamondon once called Curtis during the 2020 leadership race and demanded that Curtis take down a tweet comparing Plamondon's immigration views to the French far-right, despite Curtis never giving his phone number to Plamondon.
On November 28, 2024, it was reported by Noovo Info that members of the sovereignist identitarian group Nouveau alliance were participating in the meetings of the PQ and the Bloc Québécois. Plamondon stated that his party welcomed those in the far-right and far-left as long as they respect their code of ethics.
On March 17, 2025, the PQ won its fifth seat with its win in the 2025 Terrebonne provincial by-election, with Catherine Gentilcore being elected MNA. On August 11, 2025, the PQ won its sixth seat with its win in the 2025 Arthabaska provincial by-election, with Alex Boissonneault being elected MNA. After their Arthabaska victory, Plamondon welcome support from People Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier for a third referendum. Former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard was critical of Plamondon's plan for a third referendum during his first term and advised that he should reconsider his plan. Plamondon rejected Bouchard's comment by pointing out that he is still a member of the party. Plamondon has also stated that if a sovereignty referendum were successful, Quebec would establish its own currency up to a decade after the vote. The PQ would also consider establishing an independent commission to evaluate creating its own currency, keeping the Canadian dollar, or adopting the American dollar.
On December 2025, Plamondon declared on social media that part of Quebec’s cultural community lacked loyalty after representatives from several cultural associations welcomed Marc Miller’s appointment as federal minister of Canadian Identity and Culture. Laurent Dubois, director general of the Society of Radio, Television and Film Authors, one of representatives that welcomed Miller appointment, was critical of Plamondon's comment by stating that they wecolmed Miller by stating that his union memebers are affected by two federal laws, the Broadcasting Act and the Copyright Act. Artists such as screenwriter Eric K. Boulianne and director Rafaël Ouellet also criticized Plamondon's condemnation of Miller by sharing a screenshot of him congratulating Donald Trump on his victory in November 2024. Sovereignist songwriter Paul Piche felt that Plamondon made a mistake and should apologize for his comment while filmmaker Louis Bélanger felt that Plamondon damaged the relationship between cultural community and the party. The following Sunday, Plamondon tempered his comments while appearing on Tout le monde en parle (Canadian talk show).