Quebec voters play important role in electing Liberals to fourth consecutive term

A day after the federal election and with votes still being counted, it was clear Quebec voters played an important role in electing the Liberals to a fourth consecutive term.

In 2021, the party won 35 seats in Quebec. On Monday the Liberals added an extra nine seats in the province, bringing their total to 44.

“I think Quebec people wanted to vote more strategically,” Montreal Liberal supporter Nour Hanna told CityNews. “I think we went for voting against a Conservative rather than for a specific party. Quebec is a very liberal province rather than all other provinces.

“I’m super happy we have a Liberal government rather than a Conservative one, personally.”

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“I wanted someone to face Trump, to face the monster,” added Montreal Guy Boyer, who also voted for Mark Carney.

“I think people voted a little more out of fear of Trump, because they didn’t really talk about the issues in Quebec and Canada either,” said Bloc Québécois voter Mario Fisette, who is form Mirabel. “It was a lot about Trump, the Americans, and free trade.”

Brooke Jeffrey, a political science professor at Concordia University, suggests that for certain Quebecers, voting Liberal gave them the best chance at protecting their language and culture against an annexation threat from the United States.

“For Quebecers, more than anybody in the country, this was an existential crisis with Mr. Trump and the possible annexation discussion, 51st state,” Jeffrey said. “Quebecers had more than the economy on the line; they had language and culture on the line and in that situation, they immediately recognized they’re safer with Canada than they are with the United States, where Mr. Trump had introduced already an executive order declaring English the only official language.”

“The threat from the White House and the very clever use of the fear in the population by the Liberals,” added Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet. “Each time they feared to lose ground, suddenly the 51st state came back.”

READ: Bloc Québécois could be ‘extraordinarily important’ if Liberals win minority: Blanchet

Blanchet says he is prepared to collaborate with the Liberal government, especially if Carney decides to turn to the Bloc rather than the NDP to support a minority government.

“Kind of a truce in which the Liberals would refrain from being offensive about language and the secularity of the state and immigration and oil,” Blanchet said. “Looking at what we have in common and working on that, basically. And I must say that the marriage between the NDP and the Liberals brought the NDP from 25 to seven. I’m not sure if I were them that I would try that another time.”