Coalition Avenir Quebec Christine Fréchette speaks during a news conference after calling a general election in Quebec City on Thursday.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
The spectre of U.S. President Donald Trump hung over the launch of the provincial election campaign in Quebec, while the debate over a third referendum on independence faded into the background.
Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette kicked off the 39-day campaign Thursday morning, declaring Mr. Trump to be her main adversary. The province’s major opposition parties jockeyed to position themselves as best-suited to defend Quebec against the ravages of a continuing trade war.
“This election will be like no other. The world has changed. In fact, what we thought was a fog has just turned into a storm,” Ms. Fréchette said at a press conference in Quebec City. “We’re under full-scale attack, like never before, from our main economic partner.”
The start of the campaign comes less than a week after trade negotiations between Canada and the U.S. fell apart, prompting Mr. Trump to go ahead with 50-per-cent tariffs on about $28-billion worth of Canadian goods. Ottawa responded by announcing what it called dollar-for-dollar tariffs, which will take effect on Sept. 8.
On Thursday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the Quebec election played a role in the breakdown of negotiations, accusing Prime Minister Mark Carney of “manufacturing” a dispute over French-language requirements for political ends.
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Quebeckers will go to the polls on Oct. 5.
Meanwhile, the sovereignty referendum promised by the Parti Québécois, which is currently leading in the polls, earned barely a mention on Thursday. PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon last week pledged not to hold a referendum until Mr. Trump leaves office in 2029.
Ms. Fréchette, who succeeded former premier François Legault in April, attempted to position the governing Coalition Avenir Québec as the best choice to lead the province at a time of geopolitical uncertainty. But her opponents accused her of using Mr. Trump’s tariffs to shift the focus away from her government’s record after eight years in power.
Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon gestures as he answers questions from the media during the launch of his election campaign in Montreal on Thursday.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
The CAQ saw its support collapse in recent years under the leadership of Mr. Legault, though it has rebounded slightly under Ms. Fréchette.
“After two terms with a majority government, the Legault-Fréchette duo has unfortunately led us to the brink of the precipice,” Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon said during a press conference in Montreal.
The PQ Leader highlighted his own economic team, which he said is well-positioned “to deal with the tariff situation vis-à-vis the Americans.” During his speech, he made only one glancing reference to his plan to hold a referendum within a first mandate.
The Parti Québécois has been leading in the polls for the better part of three years, but support for sovereignty remains stubbornly low, around 30 per cent. That number has dropped since Mr. Trump returned to the White House last year.
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Questioned by reporters, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon said he’s been transparent about his proposed referendum, and Quebeckers now want to hear the party’s position on other issues. The PQ released its full plan for independence earlier this summer.
Marc André Bodet, a professor of political science at Laval University, said the PQ’s strategy was to lay its sovereigntist cards on the table ahead of the campaign and try to focus attention elsewhere after the writs were issued, given most Quebeckers don’t want another vote on independence.
“You would expect the whole campaign to start with a debate about ‘Are we going to have a referendum or not?’” he said. “And that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
However, Ms. Fréchette tried to remind Quebeckers that the Parti Québécois has not backed off its pledge to hold a vote on sovereignty. “On Oct. 5, you’ll have a choice to make: a government that works full-time for your priorities or a government that will work part-time because it’s too busy preparing for its referendum,” she said.
The CAQ Leader on Thursday tried to distance herself from Mr. Legault’s legacy, asking voters for a “first mandate for a Fréchette government.” The name Coalition Avenir Québec doesn’t appear on the party’s campaign signs.
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Ms. Fréchette also struck a less combative tone than her predecessor on her relationship with Ottawa, saying she’s able to work with the federal government “when it’s good for Quebec.”
Last week, Mr. Carney cited U.S. concerns about French-language requirements, including for online streaming platforms, as one of the reasons he instructed negotiators to walk away from the table.
But on Thursday, Mr. Lutnick said the Prime Minister manufactured the language dispute to keep the PQ from winning the Quebec election. “Do I care about how the Québécois speak? I mean, what could matter less to America? We don’t care,” he told reporters in Washington.
In a Wednesday interview with CBC News, conducted in English and French, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer also rejected the idea that his side would have allowed the deal to fall apart over a language issue.
Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard walks back to his bus after he launched his campaign for the provincial election in Quebec City, on Thursday.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, said in a social-media post Thursday that he welcomes the news that measures to protect the French language “will not be subject to future U.S. trade actions.”
Speaking to reporters in Quebec City, Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard said Ms. Fréchette is using the trade war to shore up support for her party at the eleventh hour. “The CAQ is the queen of political theatre,” he said.
The Liberals, currently the Official Opposition, have been trying to make a comeback since Mr. Milliard was named leader in February. But they have struggled to improve their polling among francophone voters outside Montreal.
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The Parti Québécois is likely to win the largest number of ridings, Prof. Bodet said. But in a crowded field, with five parties on track to win seats, it’s “very difficult to predict what’s going to happen,” he added.
The PQ’s lead has narrowed, while the percentage of undecided voters is unusually high – between 30 per cent and 40 per cent, Prof. Bodet said.
Meanwhile, the Quebec Conservatives, with just one seat, are hoping for a breakthrough, especially in the regions around Quebec City.
The left-leaning Québec Solidaire, lagging in the polls, will try to retain its handful of existing seats.