Quebec premier not present at Canada-EU summit in Montreal
Posted October 29, 2026 4:55 pm.
Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is not participating in the Canada-European Union summit in Montreal on Thursday and Friday.
That’s because he says he was not given the opportunity to speak by Prime Minister Mark Carney or the right to negotiate on behalf of Quebec.
Instead, St-Pierre Plamondon has sent Quebec’s chief diplomat, Pascal Paradis, an unelected official, to represent the province at the two-day summit.
“This is a missed opportunity for Mark Carney’s federal government to simply allow Quebec to welcome the international guests present here, to have a voice, at a summit being held in Montreal, here in Quebec. Quebec’s requests were legitimate, normal, and natural in this context, and they were refused,” said Paradis.
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It’s the latest in a series of headbutting between the new Quebec government and Ottawa. The prime minister addressed the frosty relationship on Thursday.
“We’ve always practiced cooperative federalism,” said Carney. “That means working together on the priorities of Canadians and I’ve found that that’s worked in all the other cases. I’ll continue to practice that and be available to work with Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon for the interests of Quebecers.”
CityNews spoke to Montrealers across the street from the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in downtown Montreal where the EU-Canada summit meetings took place Thursday.
“Paul St-Pierre Plamondon should be here in person doing his best to represent the constituents of Quebec and Canada as a whole even if it doesn’t necessarily mean that he can be at that negotiating table,” said Ciaran Williams.
“We need all of our premiers and our prime minister at events together to represent the fact that we are unified as a nation and that we’re actually able to stand together and coordinated against exterior threats like Donald Trump, that we’re able to organize with groups like the EU as a single voice.”
“I think it’s stupid to decide not to be there,” said Jean-Pierre Couturier. “It’s actually offensive and I feel offended that he wouldn’t just be humbly there and greet everyone and work for Quebec.”
“It’s his job to be there and him not being here is an awful situation,” added Erdal Karaer.
“He represents the citizens and so he should definitely be at the table especially with the fact that this is happening in Montreal,” said Amin Noorani.
“Symbolically the premier is usually there even though they aren’t allowed to speak,” said Paige Ilinoiu. “In this scenario, I still think that he should be present there.”
Political analyst Daniel Tran questioned the Quebec premier’s decision.
“Of course in the ideal world, we always want to be able to address and have a speech,” said Tran. “However we know that the real work is always in the underground where especially Prime Minister Carney offered a seat at the table for Paul St-Pierre Plamondon at the honour table. And we both know and both people did mention that if you’re not at the table, you are on the menu. Well in this case, Quebecers are on the menu.”
Quebec’s premier also wrote a letter to representatives of the European Union he shared on social media expressing his thoughts about the negotiation of agreements without the Quebec government’s participation and also expressed a desire to meet the E.U. representatives in the near future.
“We are in a very particular context where Prime Minister Carney has started a lot of the heavy lifting, creating partnerships with influent levels of government around the world,” said Tran. “So this time would have been a great opportunity to piggyback on that tactic and at the same time position Quebec.
“Now instead of going for that strategy, the Parti Québécois and Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is trying to take a step back and try to control the narrative. But it’s much easier to go on a train that’s already moving than to try to create connections that has not been there, especially for a new government.”
The goal of the summit is to develop a deeper partnership in EU-Canada relations and will cover a number of topics that include trade, digital technologies, critical raw materials research, innovation, education as well as defence and security.
“In light of the fact that our number one export partner internationally has turned its back on us, we do necessarily have to diversify our markets in Europe, doesn’t make the most sense for that,” Williams said of PSPP’s absence. “Culturally and economically they have very similar democratic nations we can integrate with well and as well as that just culturally we’re very similar.
“So it makes sense to try to integrate us along more fronts than just economic ones, whether it’s socially, educationally and politically.”
