By calling last week to overthrow Justin Trudeau’s government, François Legault did not, he believes, give his support to the Conservative Party of Canada.
“I never said that I supported one party over the other,” the Premier of Quebec said in the House on Wednesday, a little less than a week after having encouraged the Bloc Québécois to support a Conservative motion aimed at bringing down the federal government.
“I said that we should not support Mr. Trudeau’s government until […] that he will not make a clear commitment to reduce the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec,” added Mr. Legault, stung by questions from Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who accused the CAQ elected official of having “become the super volunteer” of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
Last Thursday, Mr. Legault made a highly unusual statement by calling on the Parti Québécois to convince its “brother party,” the Bloc, to back down on its decision to vote against Mr. Poilievre’s motion of censure. “What we need in Ottawa is an economic government,” he said, without specifying in black and white who he wanted to see replace Justin Trudeau as leader of the country.
Since then, Québec solidaire has accused the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) of having aligned itself behind an anti-abortion and pro-oil party.
“Pierre Poilievre has committed to going against the environmental choices of the Quebec nation. He doesn’t want to give a cent to the tramway. He wants to build new pipelines on our territory. He wants to allow oil refineries to pollute even more. In short, the Prime Minister is supporting a man who dreams of destroying all of Quebec’s environmental efforts as soon as he comes to power,” said Mr. Nadeau-Dubois on Wednesday during question period at the National Assembly.
According to the elected representative in solidarity, “everyone in Quebec understood what the Prime Minister did last Thursday.” “He aligned himself behind Pierre Poilievre,” thundered “GND” on Wednesday.
Immigration
François Legault denies having done so. His exit, he says, was aimed at making gains on the immigration front. And according to Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge, it’s working.
“What I felt was that the pressure was mounting. The pressure was mounting on the federal Liberal government,” he said.
On Tuesday, federal ministers Marc Miller and Dominic LeBlanc deplored the Prime Minister’s statement, which they said did not allow them to advance their plans for distributing asylum seekers across Canada.
“We believe that this initiative would have a better chance of success if Quebec joined forces with us to encourage conservative provincial governments to participate, rather than encouraging a motion of censure by Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives,” wrote the two elected members of the Liberal Party of Canada in a letter obtained by Radio-Canada.
In 2021, as the federal election approached, François Legault tacitly supported former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, urging Quebecers to “be wary” of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. The CPC ultimately won 10 seats in Quebec, compared to 32 for the Bloc.
With Marie-Michèle Sioui