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Quebec election: Liberals win majority

Nineteen months after they were ousted from power, the Liberals in Quebec will form a majority government.

Nineteen months after they were ousted from power, the Liberals in Quebec will form a majority government.

The Liberals entered this election campaign as the official opposition, but battled back from a public backlash and integrity questions that saw the province elect its first Parti Québécois minority government in the fall of 2012.

Capitalizing on PQ missteps around the referendum and cultural issues, the Liberals convinced Quebecers that the “vraies affaires,” or real issues, that mattered most to the province were the economy and jobs

The Liberals took an early lead in the popular vote, with about 41 per cent, a gain of 10 percentage points over 2012.

The PQ took about 26 per cent, a drop of six percentage points from 2012.

The Coalition Avenir Québec captured about 24 per cent, down four percentage points.

Québec Solidaire took about seven per cent of the popular vote, up one point from the last election.

PQ Leader Pauline Marois was behind Liberal candidate Caroline Simard by 235 votes with only 11 polls left to report in her riding of ?Charlevoix-Côte-de-Beaupré.

CAQ Leader François Legault and Québec Solidaire co-spokesperson Françoise David will both be re-elected, CBC News projects.

Quebec's chief electoral office reported a voter turnout of almost 63 per cent as of 8:20 p.m. ET.

More than a million Quebecers cast votes in the advance polls.

Liberals react to Quebec win

Prominent Liberals in the rest of Canada were quick to offer their congratulations to their Quebec colleagues.

Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau issued a statement that emphasized the result showed Quebecers have priorities above sovereignty.

"Today, Quebecers voted for a better economy, instead of a third referendum, by electing Philippe Couillard as their new premier and giving the Quebec Liberal Party a strong mandate to address the real issues in the province," the statement reads.

Ontario Liberal Leader and Premier Kathleen Wynne offered her congratulations on Twitter.