The Union Nationale, which had held power until the previous 1970 general election, was wiped off the electoral map, losing all 17 of its seats.

The Parti Québécois, for instance, won 30% of the popular vote, a significant improvement over their previous showing of 23% in the 1970 election.

Quebec elections have historically produced significant disparities in seat counts.

Upon Confederation in 1867, section 80 of the British North America Act, 1867 provided for the following ridings in the Legislative Assembly to be protected from having their boundaries altered without the consent of the majority of the members representing them: Consent by a majority of the members of the 18 districts concerned was finally secured in December 1970, and the constitutional restrictions were accordingly revoked.

A 1972 Act [2] increased the number of MNAs from 108 to 110 through the following changes: The Liberals, Unionists and péquistes all fielded full slates, while the créditistes failed to nominate a candidate only in Saint-Laurent (because a traffic accident prevented that candidate from presenting his nomination papers before the deadline),[3] so virtually all constituencies experienced at least four-way contests: