Carney's Quebec honeymoon could turn into a 'hangover' in a province with high expectations
OTTAWA — Mark Carney didn’t even know how many MPs the Liberals would have in Quebec on Tuesday morning when he got a taste of what awaited him.
“Mark Carney owes one to Quebecers,” said Quebec Premier François Legault after the Liberal party’s resounding results in Quebec.
A few hours earlier, Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who enjoys a comfortable lead in the polls, had not congratulated the federal leader but did predict that the next government would be “hostile” to Quebec.
“To say that Mark Carney will not collaborate and will not favour Quebec’s interests in the upcoming years… is pretty obvious to me,” said St-Pierre Plamondon, whose nickname in Quebec is PSPP.
Then Marc Tanguay, the interim leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, seemed indifferent to Carney’s successes and wanted everyone to know that “the Liberal Party of Canada is not the Liberal Party of Quebec.”
Does it help the Quebec Liberal Party at the provincial level?
“The next election campaign will be between the Quebec Liberal Party and a referendum on the sovereignty of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon,” Tanguay added, underlining that the context between the federal election and the 2026 provincial election will be “completely different”.
Winning 43 of the province’s 78 seats, the party’s best result since 1980, could come at a cost. A separatist source pointed out that after the 1980 election, Pierre Trudeau’s Liberals “stuffed a constitution down Quebecers’ throats”. The government of Quebec has never signed the 1982 Constitution.
Another source told us they believed that for the first time, Quebecers would “really have expectations” of the federal government and predicted that within a year, Carney’s honeymoon would be over and would be replaced by a “hangover.”
In an interview with the National Post, Carney’s Quebec Lieutenant Steven Guilbeault said that “the day after an election, you have to roll up your sleeves because the work begins.” He acknowledged that premiers, industries, artists, environmentalists and “the people” have “expectations”.
“This means that there will be many strong Quebec voices around the cabinet table,” Guilbeault said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a debt; in fact, I would say it’s an obligation we have to represent them well.”
The Liberals have, after all, managed to make gains outside Montreal and in French-speaking regions, traditionally favourable to the Bloc Québécois.
“I think that’s what we’re kind of expecting … a slightly greater weight for Quebec compared to Ontario, not necessarily compared to the whole country. But Carney, yes, he owes one to Quebecers,” said Geneviève Tellier, a political studies professor at the University of Ottawa.
While Legault is “happy” with Carney’s victory, his expectations are high.
“I think that the best way to thank Quebecers is to take action about the economy, about the immigration,” said Legault who wishes to see the 400,000 temporary immigrants controlled by Ottawa reduced by 50 per cent.
Federal election results map for Quebec
Legault is “very happy” with Carney’s presence at the helm of the federal government because the two men share a similar vision for the economic future of the country and the province.
With that in mind, Tellier believes the Liberals could invest quickly in projects such as the high-speed rail line in the Quebec City-Windsor corridor but also contribute to the development of Quebec’s energy sector and support Quebec’s traditional industries.
After all, if Quebecers voted for the Liberals, it was because they were concerned about the Canada-U.S. relationship.
“Carney will also have to deliver the goods, that is, negotiate with Trump. Support has been strong in Quebec, but anything that goes up quickly comes down quickly,” said Tellier.
If the situation deteriorates quickly, the PQ could well take advantage. On Friday, the prime minister’s announcement of an upcoming royal visit to Canada gave PSPP an opportunity to attack Ottawa.
“It is all the more fascinating to note that at the first opportunity, Mark Carney refers to a foreign sovereign, and to an institution clearly hostile to Quebecers, to defend a concept which has nevertheless been rejected and devalued by this same federal regime with regard to Quebecers, that of “sovereignty”,” PSPP wrote on social media .
In the aftermath of the election, PSPP sharply criticized Bloc Québécois operatives for their campaign strategy “which validates Mark Carney as a collaborator, as someone who is preparing to collaborate with Quebec.”
The Bloc put the independence project on hold for at least a year while the federal government negotiated a new economic and security agreement with the United States, and leader Yves-François Blanchet boasted of having exchanged cell phone numbers with Carney.
PSPP didn’t appreciate this. And he didn’t hesitate to offer criticism, much to the chagrin of Bloc candidates and supporters.
“We need to get out of Canada and create our own country,” said PSPP.
National Post
atrepanier@postmedia.com
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