With less than a year to go before the next provincial election, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon galvanized his troops at the national council meeting in Sherbrooke over the weekend, stating that from now on, the Parti Québécois (PQ) would show ambition “in all circumstances.”
“We have the right, but above all, we have the duty to build a Quebec that is different from the Quebec in decline. The Quebec in decline that has been imposed on us by the federal government, the CAQ, and the Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) for several years,” said St-Pierre Plamondon on Sunday in a speech before several hundred enthusiastic supporters.
The PQ leader took the stage as supporters chanted in unison: “Quebec, a country! Quebec, a country!”
In his speech, St-Pierre Plamondon also said he would “massively reduce red tape and bureaucracy” if he came to power.
“A Parti Québécois government will replace the open bar of subsidies with tax relief for Quebec’s small and medium-sized businesses,” he said.
The PQ leader said that several “very important tests” awaited his party in the near future, notably the by-election in Chicoutimi. The PQ has a good chance of winning this riding from the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ).
The PQ national council was held under the theme “Richer regions.”
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On Saturday, the PQ officially announced that it was in favor of creating a Quebec currency once Quebec becomes independent. However, a transition period of at least ten years using the Canadian dollar will be necessary before this can happen.
The Liberals wasted no time in condemning the PQ’s proposal. MNA Frédéric Beauchemin urged the PQ to stop “talking nonsense.”
“Wait a minute. By separating from Canada, the PQ wants to separate Quebec from all the economic agreements it currently has, creating an unprecedented wave of economic instability and removing Quebec from NATO. At the same time, this party tells us that it wants to ensure as much stability as possible. It’s like saying, ‘I’m going to cut off your feet, and it won’t hurt,’” he hammered home on social media on Saturday.
“Monetary policy is not a fairy tale. What you are saying will result in an incalculable decline in the purchasing power of Quebecers,” he added.
The former chair of the QLP policy committee, André Pratte, accused the PQ of proposing “nothing less than the breakup of the economic union between Canada and Quebec.”
“To my knowledge, this is one of the first times that such a complete separation has been proposed so seriously since the sovereignty-association model conceived by René Lévesque,” he also wrote on X.
André Pratte—speaking in a personal capacity—says he expects the PQ to accuse him of waging a fear campaign.
“Too bad: I am beginning to think that, even more than before, there are very good reasons to have serious concerns about the PQ’s radical 2025 project,” he said.
On Saturday, PQ leader St-Pierre Plamondon predicted that the “federalist clan” would condemn his proposal.
“It’s certain that the federalist discourse, and I’ll give you one guess, will be to say that a Quebec currency will be terrible, and to wage a fear campaign that is absolutely not based on facts,” he said at the time.
The PQ wants to set up an independent commission after Quebec becomes a country to make its own recommendations. It is therefore possible that this commission will not suggest the creation of a Quebec currency.
The PQ leader has assured that he will respect the commission’s decision but believes that the creation of a Quebec currency is “by far the most likely scenario.”
The PQ had evaluated two other scenarios: keeping the Canadian dollar or adopting the US currency.
Currency was the second part of the Blue Book that the PQ is gradually unveiling. Last week, the PQ leader revealed the chapter on the international relations of a sovereign Quebec.
Other elements of the Blue Book will be presented in the coming weeks.
St-Pierre Plamondon insists that he will hold a referendum during his first term, even though polls show that a majority of Quebecers are opposed to independence.
The PQ has been leading in the polls for nearly two years now. Indicators even suggest that it could form a majority government if elections were held today.
François Legault’s CAQ government, for its part, is struggling in the polls. The Qc125 poll aggregator indicates that the CAQ could be virtually wiped off the electoral map if elections were held today.
It therefore seems that we are heading toward a duel between the Liberals and the PQ. The latest Léger poll shows that the gap between the PQ (32 per cent) and the PLQ (27 per cent) is narrowing.
However, the Liberals’ score among Francophones is still low: 17 per cent compared to 40 per cent for the PQ, according to the latest Léger poll.
Moreover, it is certainly no coincidence that the PQ chose to hold its National Council meeting in Sherbrooke. A recent Pallas Data poll shows that the PQ could take the riding of the same name from QS.
The Québec Solidaire member for Sherbrooke, Christine Labrie, who was elected in 2018, has announced that she will not be running in the next election.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
