For decades voters in Quebec have been reluctant to openly support the Liberal party, but nonetheless they marched into voting booths and cast ballots for the party.

But on Monday when the ballots were counted, the voting-booth-boost for the Liberal party had vanished and the Liberals went from 68 seats to 32 and a place as the official opposition.

That number was later lowered to 31 seats following a recount.

Most pundits were expecting a CAQ government but the extent of the party's victory and the subsequent Liberal defeat was greater than anticipated.

Paul Journet, columnist for La Presse, believes people were not voting for the CAQ as much as they were voting against the Liberal party.

"I think the ballot question was 'Are you tired of the Liberals, do you want to try something new? A party that's not an old party, a party that's not the Parti Quebecois or the Liberals?' It was not a vote on health care or the economy or education," said Journet.

Gilles Duceppe, former leader of the Bloc Quebecois agreed with that assessment.

"I think it's a government elected by people that wanted to get rid of the Liberals. This morning the Journal de Montreal first page is Liberez-nous des Liberaux, get rid of the Liberals and that's exactly what happened," said Duceppe.

"The main thing is that people wanted to get rid of the Liberals so they chose the CAQ."

The riding of Chateauguay was one such riding that most people thought the Liberals could hold onto with ease.

Instead cabinet minister Pierre Moreau lost to CAQ contender Marie-Chantal Chasse by 1,100 votes.

In 2014 Moreau won the riding by 10,000 votes, so its loss in 2018 is stunning, and many party supporters were shocked on Monday evening to see the extent of their party's defeat.

The Liberal party maintained almost every seat it had on the island of Montreal, but voter turnout on the island was incredibly low.

Those low turnouts in the rest of Quebec likely contributed to the Liberal defeat, as motivated CAQ supporters turned out while Liberal supporters stayed home.

Cabinet Minister David Heurtel, who did not run again in 2018, said that low voter turnout was significant.

"I think there was a massive will to change, but I don't think, when you look at the numbers this morning, you don't see the change being clear because the CAQ got a total of 37.5 percent of the total vote provincewide. That's the lowest vote ever in Quebec history for a majority government," said Heurtel.

Liberals who were elected Monday, including Carlos Leitao, Kathleen Weil, and newcomer Jennifer Maccarone, said they would continue to support anglophones, but the party's main challenge moving forward is to rebuild support among francophone voters.

Going into the election polls indicated that just 17 percent of francophones favoured the Liberal party.

Party leader Philippe Couillard said Monday that he would take some time to reflect on his political future after being the third incumbent Quebec leader in a row to be defeated.

"I'm not bitter, and I ask you to not be bitter too," said Couillard.

"We did it, and we did what we promised we would do. Together we did what needed to be done to make the province more prosperous, greener, and fairer."

"I leave Quebec in a much better position than when I found it," said Couillard.

Heurtel said he does not know what Couillard will do, but does not anticipate a new leadership race soon.

"It's not like there's a big rush and on top of that it's time for the Liberals to come together," said Heurtel

"There's a lot of similarity with what happened to the Liberal party after the PQ first took power in 1976. It was a devastating loss."

He said that what the Liberals need to do is focus on voters and build new connections between the public and Quebec's oldest party.

"Everybody needs to take a step back and talk about real issues. Having also an emotional connection to talk about real issues that matter to young families, to people on the ground, and give an overarching vision of what Quebec should be. And I think that means to talk about more of what it means to be a nationalist in the Liberal party," said Heurtel.