« Quebec, Canada? We’ll make a deal! », lance Donald Trump

At the funeral of Pope Francis, celebrated on April 26, there were kings, queens, princes and princesses. There were also prime ministers. That of Canada was not present, the day before federal elections requires.

There were also several presidents. That of the United States stood out for having dressed in blue in a crowd of dresses and black jackets, a traditional color of mourning for Catholics.

The images of the President in Blue went around the world. On one of them appears Martine Biron, minister of International Relations of Quebec, right next to him.

After the ceremony, Martine Biron says she was able to shake hands with French President Emmanuel Macron. Then, the head of the protocol presented another president to whom the Minister of International Relations of Quebec wanted to speak: Donald Trump.

The head of the protocol introduced me. Donald Trump turned. He hugged my hand very cordially. He looked me in the eye and said to me, “Quebec, Canada! We will make a deal with you.” [Québec, Canada! Nous conclurons une entente avec vous.]

«And deal? Really? “Replied Ms. Biron, surprise. Yesreplied Donald Trump.

Martine Biron is not naive: I take this for what it is: a brief exchange. We will see how it materializes in fact.

What the Minister retains, above all, is the momentum with which the President of the United States pronounced the word Québec. He knew exactly who we wereshe says.

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For months, the Quebec delegations network in the United States has worked in this direction: discreetly but surely register the name Québec On the list of trade partners in the United States to be careful.

This is what Martine Biron explained to us when we met her at her office, rue de l’Amérique-Française, in Quebec. We have exchanges of $ 250 billion a year abroad. Half of these exchanges are made with the United Statessummed up the minister.

The United States has two consulates in Quebec: it demonstrates the importance of the link. It was therefore a brutal shock when the Trump administration announced a pricing warshe said before explaining that the well established network of Quebec representations in the United States and abroad has risen the sleeves and put himself to work.

It should be surprised, Minister Martine Biron, a journalist by trade, gave instruction to Quebec representatives abroad-and particularly those who are in the United States-to make land, land and land, a magic word in journalism.

I myself and our teams in the field have multiplied meetings with contacts in the business community and with elected officials.

Multiply meetings

This watchword, the Quebec delegate in new York, David Brulotte, understood this.

When we met him during a visit to the American metropolis, at the end of March, Mr. Brulotte, just 42 years old, returned from the state of Pennsylvania.

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What we did was find stories to tell our interlocutors. It is a tedious but necessary research work, which allows us to illustrate in a practical and very targeted way the potential dangers of a tariff warexplained the young diplomat who, however, already has a long experience.

A typical example: we will see an elected representative of a city where there is a business that is dealing with Quebec. And it is explained to him that if there is taxation of prices, potentially it can mean job losses for x number of people in his county and we hope that it is percolatinghe adds.

David Brulotte worked in particular to the development of business at the General Delegation of Quebec in Paris before being appointed delegate of Quebec in Tokyo, then in Los Angeles. He has been stationed in New York since 2024.

The representation of Quebec in New York, in fact, is the oldest diplomatic antenna in Quebec. We have been here since 1940. We celebrate our 85th birthday this yearsays David Brulotte. And from the end of the 19th century, Quebec was present here. The Quebec government then issued obligations to Wall Street and it took someone here to represent us.

The keyword: defense

While Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is scheduled to meet the American president on Tuesday in Washington, we will see if the statement that Donald Trump made to Martine Biron to the Pope’s funeral will hold the road.

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In any case, for months, the Minister of International Relations of Quebec has been trying to intensify contacts outside the United States to develop new markets.

We are super well positioned in Europe. We just opened a Quebec office in Switzerlandunderlines Martine Biron. Quebec already has several general offices and delegations in Europe, for example in London, Munich, Brussels and Paris.

We owe the important presence of Quebec abroad to Paul Gérin-Lajoie, a significant figure in the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. In 1965, he developed the doctrine in the international policy of Quebec, which bears his name, the PGL doctrine, according to which Quebec must establish himself as an autonomous interlocutor on the international scene.

In Ontario or Alberta and in the rest of Canada, I can tell you that they are jealous of our international network! We have nine offices in the United States, which we have reorganized in the last months. In all, Quebec has 34 performances abroad, which is completely singular for a subnational statesaid Ms. Biron.

Martine Biron told us that she went this winter to Belgium this winter, where she met the representative of Wallonia. I learned that Belgium intended to invest important sums to rearm. This is the case for many European countriesshe said.

What do we offer in this context? Quebec is not going to embark on armaments, of course, but we can offer several products to the arms industry, such as engines, aluminum, nickel, because the Buzz word [le mot clé] Right now, all over the world, it’s defenseshe continues.

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At the funeral of Pope Francis, Martine Biron also took the opportunity to tighten the pliers to the president of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen.

“Last year, we made a request for Quebec to become a partner of the European Committee of the Regions and that is moving well,” said the minister.