MONTREAL -- Despite being the possible intended target of a political shooting, premier-designate Pauline Marois says Quebec is not a violent society.

The Parti Quebecois leader says people shouldn't draw hasty conclusions from what she described as an act of folly, committed by someone who may be suffering from mental issues.

"Never, never will I accept that Quebec is associated with violence," Marois told a news conference Wednesday.

"It is an isolated event and it does not represent who we are... Quebec is not a violent society. One act of folly cannot change this."

Marois says that she had no idea she might have been in danger when bodyguards whisked her off the stage during her victory speech and she says she only learned after leaving the partisan celebration that someone had died.

A suspect under police custody has been brought to a Montreal hospital for a medical examination, according to a hospital statement.

Police are also questioning the suspected gunman. They are not confirming, or ruling out, the possibility that the intended target was the newly elected premier.

Police sources say the suspect is 62-year-old Richard Henry Bain, the owner of a hunting and fishing lodge in the mountains north of Montreal.

He was wearing a housecoat and black facemask when he was tackled by police, and while being whisked away he shouted about an awakening of English-speaking Quebecers.

Around midnight pandemonium swept over what had been a celebration for the newly elected PQ. The incident triggered the surreal scene of a victory speech by Marois being interrupted as she was whisked off the stage by bodyguards.

A shooter had blasted his way into the back of the building, shooting two people and killing one, before setting a fire at the exit.

The suspect has yet to be formally charged. According to the Facebook page of a Richard Henry Bain, he runs a hunting and fishing lodge near Mont-Tremblant, Que. The website for the camp has since been suspended.

The victim's body was carried out from the crime scene Wednesday around noon, about a dozen hours after the attack. Authorities wheeled out the covered body of the 48-year-old man, carrying it on a gurney and lifting it into a van.

The events have sent shockwaves across the political world, with expressions of condolence and disbelief trickling back from elsewhere in the country.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement saying he was angered and saddened that such an event could happen in the country. There was a moment of silence at an NDP retreat in St. John's and Tom Mulcair, the party leader, said his colleagues were in a state of shock.

The prime minister's initial phone call to the premier-designate, Marois, touched on the business of government but also on the tragic events.

"(Harper) indicated that such acts of violence are inexcusable and have no place in Canada," said a summary of the discussion, provided by the Prime Minister's Office.

The scene of last night's PQ victory party is now part of a security perimeter, a one-block area in Montreal's downtown sectioned off with orange and blue police tape.

The popular rock band The Offspring had been scheduled to play a show at the venue on Wednesday night. The show has been cancelled.

Around two dozen investigators were still on the scene a dozen hours later. Some were examining a gas canister lying near a GMC truck, believed to be linked to the crime.

During the incident, police confiscated a weapon that carried a resemblance to an AK-47 assault rifle.

Reports say the victim was a sound technician who was working at the Metropolis club last night. Police sources confirmed the man's name, Denis Blanchette, but not his employer.