Le Soleil rose from the ashes of L'Électeur, the official newspaper of the Liberal Party of Canada, which shut down in December 1896.

The first edition was published on December 28, 1896. one day after the disappearance of its predecessor, which shut down because the Catholic clergy had forbidden it to parishioners when the newspaper criticized the Church's electoral interference.

In 1957, Le Soleil (then owned by Oscar Gilbert) cut ties to the Liberal Party of Canada to concentrate on news coverage.

In 2006, the newspaper had switched to a tabloid format at the same time as Sherbrooke's La Tribune and Trois-Rivières's Le Nouvelliste, all of which were then owned by Gesca.

Recent declines in readership due to competition by Le Journal de Québec was the main explanation of the switch from a broadsheet format.