Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and members of his party will gather this weekend at a convention in St-Hyacinthe, Que.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s call for unity at the site of a battle that brought Quebec under British rule has given fresh fodder to the leader of the Parti Québécois as he unveils his vision of an independent nation.
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said Friday that Mr. Carney’s speech in Quebec City a day earlier, in which he invoked the Battle of the Plains of Abraham as the moment when Canadians began to choose co-operation and partnership, was “the gesture of a colonialist.” The 1759 battle in the city saw British forces defeat French troops, leading to the surrender of Quebec.
The speech was part of a “very long tradition of revisionism and lies,” Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon said.
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In the speech Mr. Carney said: “The Plains of Abraham mark a battlefield, and also the place where Canada began to make its founding choice of accommodation over assimilation, of partnership over domination, of building together over pulling apart.”
Mr. Carney’s address will loom large at the sovereigntist party’s convention this weekend in St-Hyacinthe, a small city east of Montreal. Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon has promised to respond to it “point by point” during a speech on Sunday.
With the next Quebec election only months away, the PQ leader is positioning his party as a government-in-waiting, while its two main rivals search for new leaders. He has never wavered from his pledge to hold a third referendum on independence, despite low support for sovereignty in the province.
The convention is taking place as a growing Alberta independence movement presents another challenge to Canadian unity, and amid threats from the United States. On Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent commented on the possibility of a referendum in Alberta, calling the province “a natural partner for the U.S.”
PQ members will vote this weekend on the party’s “national project” – a suite of policies that opens with an “unambiguous” promise to hold a referendum by 2030.
On Friday, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon also revealed the latest instalment of his sovereignty vision. Quebeckers would receive automatic Quebec citizenship if the province separated from Canada, he said, but would be allowed to retain their Canadian citizenship as well.
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“We will not take away passports,” he said. “There’s no interest in doing that.” However, he said he would renounce his own Canadian citizenship.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon said he expects that the Canadian government, which permits dual citizenship, would likewise allow Quebeckers to keep their Canadian passports. Francophones living in other provinces would have access to an accelerated pathway to Quebec citizenship, he said.
The PQ Leader has been intermittently releasing the pillars of his plan for an independent country in recent months. He has previously said a sovereign Quebec would have its own currency.
The “national project,” a 42-page roadmap of the priorities of a PQ government, says that Quebec’s situation within Canada has deteriorated since the previous referendum, held in 1995.
“The country in which the people of Quebec can exist fully will be their own,” it reads.
The document’s policies aim to boost Quebec’s autonomy even before a vote on independence. The party is proposing to “reindustrialize” the economy by identifying imports that could be manufactured in the province, and to adopt a “buy Quebec” policy.
The PQ has promised to slash immigration, including by placing a moratorium on new economic immigrants. Instead, the party is proposing to select new permanent residents from among the temporary foreign workers and international students already in the province.
The document also says the party would push for automation in sectors of the economy that experience labour shortages.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon is readying his party for the next provincial election, scheduled for October, at a time of upheaval in Quebec politics.
Premier François Legault announced his resignation on Jan. 14, kicking off a leadership race for the Coalition Avenir Québec. The Quebec Liberals are also in search of a new leader after former federal cabinet minister Pablo Rodriguez stepped down from the post in December amid a campaign-financing scandal.
The PQ has been leading in the polls for more than two years, despite having won just three seats in the previous election, in 2022. It has since won three consecutive by-elections.