Almost half of Quebecers say that an independent Quebec would have much less influence than a united Canada in the face of the current threat of the United States, according to a new poll.
Directed by the Léger firm for the Canadian Studies Association, the online panel survey also reveals that almost half of the respondents believe that the policies of American president Donald Trump are a threat to the French language in Quebec.
“The idea that we sometimes hear from Quebec opinion leaders according to which Quebec would have more influence alone […] Do not seem to be a convincing sale argument, said Jack Jedwab, president of the association. When Donald Trump talks about 51e State, it does not seem to recognize the existence of a Quebec nation. »»
The Léger firm questioned 433 respondents in Quebec on April 5 and 6, 2025. The Canadian Marketing Research and Intelligence Council specifies that an error margin cannot be allocated to online polls, because they do not carry out a random sampling of the population.
The results of the survey, published on Tuesday, show that around 48 % of respondents agree that an independent Quebec would have less weight than Canada against the Trump administration. This includes almost 39 %of the voters of the Quebec Bloc and a majority of liberal voters (59.6 %), preservatives (53.9 %) and neodemocrats (57.1 %).
These results corroborate those of recent probe that show a ramp -up of the liberals in Quebec at the expense of the Bloc Québécois.
The interest in Quebec sovereignty has also decreased since Donald Trump began to threaten Canada with customs and annexation rights. A light survey carried out in February showed that support for independence had fallen at 29 %, the lowest level ever measured by the survey company.
According to Mr. Jedwab, the results question the Bloc’s sovereignist message, even if the party voters believe that “we have to act together” to counter the threats of the American president.
About 32 % of respondents did not agree that an independent Quebec would have less influence than a united Canada, and the others said they did not know.
The threatened French?
The survey also reveals that a little more than 46 % of those questioned estimate that the French language in Quebec is threatened by Donald Trump’s policies, including almost 69 % of the block voters.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration qualified the Linguistic Law of Quebec, Bill 96, commercial irritation. The United States is concerned about the changes to the rules relating to trademarks on products of products, which will require the translation of generic terms in French.
The American president also signed a decree designating English as the official language of the United States.
“These elements remind us forcefully that, in a way, the rest of Canada is a kind of stamp for the protection of French,” said Jedwab.
Linguistic rights will probably be discussed during the French debate of the chiefs, which must take place on Wednesday. At the start of the campaign, the Liberal chief Mark Carney said he would intervene in a dispute of Bill 96 before the Supreme Court of Canada, but he then specified that he only opposed the preventive appeal at the disposal of derogation and that he supported the need to protect the French language. The disposition of derogation – Article 33 of the Charter – prevents any dispute from a law on the grounds that it violates certain fundamental freedoms.
The conservative chief Pierre Hairy and that of the NPD Jagmeet Singh mentioned that they would not intervene in a challenge to Bill 96.
The new survey indicates that only 25 % of Quebecers estimate that the Quebec government should ignore a possible opinion from the Supreme Court on the Linguistic Law, including 47 % of the block voters.
