Blanchet criticized by Parti Québécois as he promises to work with other leaders

MONTREAL — Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is calling for a “partisan truce” with other federal party leaders after Monday’s federal election, even as he faces criticism from his party’s provincial cousins for putting sovereignty aside.

Blanchet told reporters in Montreal that voters want stability in Parliament in order to address the ongoing trade war with the United States.

The Bloc calls for a truce and sees a collaboration of “a little more than a year” with a possible Liberal government, the time to negotiate a new trade agreement with the unpredictable Trump administration.

“The key word that the people of Quebec want to hear is stability – not stability with compromises – it is an invitation that the federalist parties and we, the separatists, are able to (…) to show collaboration,” he pleaded at a press conference after a campaign he described as “difficult.”

It is the suburbs of the “450” that has abandoned the Bloc, among others.

Contacts have already been established with the other parties, Blanchet said

“It’s the citizens’ request that there be some form of alliance between the different political parties.”

His comments came as the Bloc Québécois was poised to win about 23 seats, which is 10 less than the party held in the last Parliament.

Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon criticized the Bloc today for treating Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney as a partner and for agreeing to suspend the push for Quebec independence while U.S. trade negotiations take place.

The Bloc caucus, which was made up of 33 MPs before the dissolution of the House, was decimated Monday night in favour of the Liberal Party (LPC) and now has only 23 MPs, but it could have some power struggle in a Parliament with a minority government.

With its 168 MPs elected or early, 4 seats away from a majority in the House, the LPC could govern only with the help of the 7 members of the New Democratic Party (NDP), but Blanchet warned them against this tactic.

Similarly, he himself refuses to exercise the balance of power, because the population does not want this instability, according to him.

“Imagine if we decide to make a mess, there will be a price to pay!”

As for the criticisms of his PQ counterpart Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, he retorted that the Commons and the National Assembly are parliaments with different dynamics.

At a press conference at the National Assembly, St-Pierre Plamondon even invited Blanchet to return to his “separatist roots.”

“The strategy adopted by the Bloc, which validates Carney as a collaborator, as someone who is about to collaborate with Quebec, set limits on what the Parti Québécois could do under the circumstances, because that’s not what we think,” he said.

“The Carney government will not collaborate with Quebec,” he predicted.

St-Pierre Plamondon said his party had “gone as far as it could” to “help” the Bloc, but “on a series of fairly fundamental issues, we didn’t have the same position,” he said. He said he would speak to Blanchet again soon.

The Bloc is coming off a tough defeat, in the context of an election campaign that was dominated by Canada’s response to threats from the United States, which favored the outgoing Liberal government.

The Bloc caucus was decimated Monday night to the benefit of the Liberal Party.

“There are wounds to be healed,” Blanchet acknowledged.

The Bloc lost solid ridings that had been won for a long time, including La Prairie-Atateken, Longueuil-Saint-Hubert, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, and Thérèse-de-Blainville.

Mont-Saint-Bruno-L’Acadie, the result of a redistribution of Montarville that was previously acquired by the Bloc, has switched to the Liberals.

In the Quebec City region, it also lost Montmorency-Charlevoix, to the Conservatives by a narrow margin, and Beauport-Limoilou, ceded to the LPC, as well as Trois-Rivières and Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou.

The riding of Trois-Rivières also went over to the LPC.

On the island of Montreal, the Bloc’s 2024 win in the riding of Verdun against the Liberals has been erased: the Liberals have regained their former stronghold hands down.

In Terrebonne, the Bloc Québécois lead was only 28 votes on Tuesday.

A brand new riding in the north shore on which the Bloc had pinned a lot of hope, Les Pays-d’en-Haut, was unquestionably ceded to the LPC.

According to Blanchet, the Liberal Party has “strategically” used the “fear distilled by Donald Trump” on trade and the “far-fetched fable of annexation” (of Canada).

As a small consolation, the Bloc managed to dislodge incumbent Liberal MP Diane LeBouthillier in Gaspésie-Les-Îles-de-la-Madeleine-Listuguj, with its star candidate Alexis Deschênes.

In 2019, in the first election when Yves-François Blanchet was at the helm of the Bloc, he won 32 seats, 41 per cent of the vote in Quebec (1,387,000 votes), compared to the 10 won in 2015 with Gilles Duceppe.

In 2021, despite his hopes of increasing his score, he stagnated at 32 seats again, still at 41 per cent of the vote (1,301,000 votes, i.e. 80,000 fewer votes).

On Tuesday, the Bloc was credited with 1,224,000 votes, so still about 80,000 fewer votes.

The party therefore ends the campaign with fewer votes and fewer seats.

While his counterparts from the opposition parties Jagmeet Singh (NDP) and Pierre Poilievre (CPC) were defeated in their own ridings, Blanchet does not feel that his authority is being challenged for the moment.

What are the reasons that encourage him to stay?

“This is the mandate I have from the members of the Bloc, this is the consensus I have in the Bloc Québécois caucus,” he concluded.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews