Response to Donald Trump: François Legault opens his game
Posted January 22, 2025 10:37 pm.
The response to Donald Trump is being organized, according to Premier François Legault, who could go so far as to ask Quebec “snowbirds” to stop traveling to Florida.
The American president is threatening to impose 25 per cent customs tariffs on Canadian imports as of Feb. 1. One hundred thousand jobs are at stake in Quebec.
“It’s going to be a shake-up,” Legault predicted Wednesday at the end of his MNAs’ pre-sessional caucus in Saint-Sauveur, in the Laurentians. “We have to prepare. We can’t rule anything out.”
He was coming out of a virtual meeting with Justin Trudeau and his provincial and territorial counterparts, where retaliatory measures were discussed.
Legault is proposing, in particular, to restrict American access to public tenders. He also views favorably the imposition of counter-tariffs on maple syrup, for example.
“Even if Mr. Trump tried to make maple syrup in Florida, he wouldn’t succeed. (…) Americans will have a choice: they will pay 25 per cent more for it (…) or they will eat syrup that is not good,” he said.
Legault could also imitate his counterpart from British Columbia, David Eby, who recently suggested that his fellow citizens stop travelling to the United States.
“There are a lot of Quebecers who spend their money in Florida. I don’t want to rule anything out,” is all he says for now.
The premiers are still considering reviewing energy exports to the United States, but Legault is asking that this only be done if the provinces concerned agree.
Faced with the risk of recession, he assures that Quebec is “well equipped” in particular thanks to its critical minerals and other natural resources. “We have great assets to be able to get through this,” he said.
But he is asking Quebecers to “stick together” and buy local. The day before, in front of a few dozen activists, he had suggested that we could do without California wine, oranges and bananas.
Legault promised to protect Quebecers “at all costs.” His Finance Minister, Eric Girard, raised the possibility of postponing the return to a balanced budget planned for 2029-2030.
The two men compared the situation to that experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
