Top 10 Quebec provincial candidates by number of votes received

Number 6 will shock you! (Well, I suppose if you are easily shocked it will, but this is actually quite unlikely.)

ElectionsDatabase has all Quebec provincial election results since 1867, so we thought we'd ask: which candidates have received the most votes since Canadian Confederation? Obviously the list skews towards candidates who run in multiple elections, who ran in larger ridings and who won large majorities, but it's always hard to tell who'll have won the most total votes (so far) without looking at all the data.

So since this is the internet: here's a top 10 list.

#10. 135,470 votes: Charles-Aimé Kirkland: A longtime Liberal MNA from Jacques-Carter, a riding in the west end of Montréal, Kirkland gave his name to a town (now suburb) on the Island of Montréal named, rather appropriately, Kirkland.

#9. 135,727 votes: François Gendron: Having served in the Québec National Assembly since 1976, Gendron has briefly served as interim leader of the Parti québécois and also as President of the National Assembly, a position functionally equivalent to Speaker.

#8: 147,472 votes: Marie-Claire Kirkland: Kirkland (the daughter of Charles-Aimé) only contested 4 elections, but the riding of Jacques-Carter had grown quite large by the early 1960s. Later the MNA for Marguerite-Bourgeoys Kirkland was the first woman to serve in the provincial cabinet of Québec, and later became the first woman to serve as a Québec provincial judge.

#7: 149,200 votes: Michel Bissonnet: Like Gendron, Bissonnet, a longtime MNA for Jeanne-Mance, served as President of the National Assembly.

#6: 150,536 votes: Jacques Chagnon: Chagnon, the long-serving MNA for Westmount--Saint Louis, serves as -- and wait for it this is the big, long-promised twist that will shock you -- the President of the National Assembly!

#5: 157,573 votes: Pierre Marsan: Marsan served as MNA for Robert-Baldwin for two decades, retiring in 2014.

#4: 171,738 votes: Pauline Marois: Marois, the first (and to-date, only) woman to serve as Premier of Québec, led the Parti québécois in the 2012 and 2014 provincial elections. Her vote count is this high due to her long service, as well as the fact that she ran in 2 by-elections in her returns to the National Assembly.

#3: 175,312 votes: Pierre Paradis: Paradis has been a frequent Liberal cabinet minister since he entered the National Assembly in 1980 as the MNA for Brome--Missisquoi.

#2: 194,060 votes: Geoffrey Kelley: Not to be outdone by his predecessors from Jacques-Cartier, Kelley has represented the West Island of Montreal riding since 1994. He has the best chance of any current MNA to reach the number one spot on this list, which belongs to...

#1: 243,735 votes: Jean-Noël Lavoie: Lavoie, the first mayor of Laval and -- shock of shocks -- a President of the National Assembly, actually lost a reasonable number of the elections he contested, but was able to rack up such large vote counts as Québec constituencies in the 1960s were very imbalanced population-wise (and Laval, where Lavoie ran, was one of the largest).