Separatists Win Quebec Election With Promise to Hold Vote on Independence
Paris (AFP) - Separatists won provincial elections in Quebec on Monday, with a promise to hold a vote on leaving Canada after U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office, testing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s message of national unity.
But the Parti Québécois fell short of a majority government in Canada’s French-speaking province, offering some solace for the federalist camp.
The PQ win still upends Canada’s political landscape as the country confronts a trade war and annexation threats levelled by the United States.
It also comes just two weeks before Canada’s oil-producing province of Alberta, an economic powerhouse, holds a vote on whether it wants to begin the process of leaving Canada.
The results make PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, a 49-year-old lawyer known by his initials PSPP, Quebec’s next premier.
At a jubilant victory party in Montreal, he invoked “the courageous struggle” francophones have endured in a part of the world increasingly dominated by English speakers.
That struggle “will find meaning when (francophones) obtain their own country”, he said.
“We deserve it,” he added, calling a referendum a chance “to decide what our national future will be”.
Carney congratulated PSPP, saying that “building a stronger Quebec is core to our mission of building a stronger Canada”.
The prime minister is popular in Quebec, and the separatist win was not seen as a repudiation of his stance toward Trump, whose confrontational policies have infuriated Canadians.
Instead, the PQ’s rise after more than a decade in opposition has been tied to frustration over affordability and an enduring desire to protect the French language in a majority anglophone country.
Surveys suggest that only about 30 percent of Quebecers want independence, but PSPP has maintained he will call a referendum on leaving Canada, just not while Trump is in office.
He has said a decision on Quebec’s independence “requires conditions that allow for an informed and calm debate”.
That shouldn’t be “hijacked by the theatrics of an unpredictable president”, he added, ruling out a referendum until at least 2029.