Quebec premier calls on Bloc Québécois to help topple Trudeau government next week, Blanchet says ‘it’s still no’
Posted September 19, 2024 10:40 am.
Last Updated September 19, 2024 3:44 pm.
Quebec Premier François Legault is calling on the Bloc Québécois to overthrow the Trudeau government next Tuesday and trigger a federal election.
In a short statement Thursday morning in the hallway of the National Assembly, Legault told reporters that he was exasperated by the Trudeau government’s inaction on the issue of temporary immigrants in Quebec.
“In the last two years, the number of temporary immigrants to Quebec has risen from 300,000 to 600,000, an increase of 300,000,” said Legault in French. “This creates serious problems when it comes to providing public services. It also has serious implications for the future of the French language, particularly in Montreal. So, it’s weakening the Quebec nation.”
He told PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon to speak to the leader of his “sister” party in Ottawa, Bloc Québécois’ Yves-François Blanchet, to get him to vote with the Conservative Party of Canada against the Trudeau government – in a vote of confidence scheduled in the Commons next Tuesday.
But moments later Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet said on X that he would not vote to topple Trudeau, saying he serves Quebecers “according to my own judgment.”
The Bloc already said Wednesday that it would not support the Conservatives motion.
“I ask Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon to have courage and to ask his comrade from the Bloc Québécois to back down, not to support the Trudeau government next week, to defend the interests of Quebecers and the Quebec nation, what is happening is important. St-Pierre Plamondon has the duty to stand up and be courageous and to challenge Blanchet,” said Legault.
The Trudeau government is a minority and needs the support of one of the opposition parties to stay in power.
The Bloc and PQ, which both campaign for Quebec independence, are ideologically aligned and have historically worked together.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said he will put forward a motion of non-confidence in the government on Sept. 24, and specifically challenged NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to back it.
The Conservatives don’t have enough votes to pass the motion with just one of the Bloc or the NDP.
Blanchet, however, has other plans. He says he wants to squeeze the Liberals to get as much as he can for Quebec, in exchange for the Bloc’s support in Parliament. On Wednesday, Blanchet said he would not support the Tories’ motion.
The Bloc leader affirmed that position Thursday, saying “it’s still no,” adding that Poilievre’s motion to defeat the government isn’t about Trudeau’s failures on immigration.
Later, in Quebec City, St-Pierre Plamondon said he supported Blanchet’s strategy and would not call on him to join the “Conservatives of Alberta.” He said there is no use in toppling the Trudeau government.
“Whether it’s Poilievre or Trudeau, we would get nothing and regress on a linguistic, financial, environment or social level,” the PQ leader said.
“He has not respected the Quebec parliament for years.”
According to Canadian Relations Minister Jean-François Roberge, the Bloc acted “prematurely” by saying that it would support the Trudeau government “even before obtaining guarantees.”
“When there are motions like the one that is coming, we invite all Quebec MPs to either make the federal government listen to reason so that it commits to respecting Quebec’s areas of jurisdiction, particularly in health, or to vote against this government,” he said in a press scrum at the National Assembly on Thursday.
Roberge took the opportunity to send a jab to federal minister Pablo Rodriguez, who will be running for the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party.
“Rodriguez needs to look in the mirror, because he wants to sit in Quebec. He hasn’t respected the Quebec parliament for years,” he said.
When questioned Tuesday about the Bloc Québécois victory in the LaSalle–Émard–Verdun by-election, Roberge stated that he was “not involved in federal politics.”
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
