(Montreal) Paul St-Pierre Plamondon calls on François Legault to create a “Team Quebec” including opposition parties, academics and organizations in order to face the tariff threats made by the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump.
Posted at 2:45 p.m.
Pierre Saint-Arnaud
The Canadian Press
The leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ) argues that all these actors do not have “conflicting political interests” on issues that directly affect Quebec.
“We all have this interest in defending the Quebec economy as best as possible in this stormy context. This working committee could be activated as early as Monday and submit recommendations now,” he wrote in a long message on his Facebook page.
Faced with what he describes as “complete disorganization of the Canadian position regarding Donald Trump’s intention to impose tariffs on us”, the PQ leader believes that it is “essential to have Quebec demands in hand and a very clear Quebec strategy, which must be implemented now” in anticipation of the announced trip of some provincial premiers – including François Legault – to Washington on February 12.
This Quebec position is all the more essential, he said, as Mr. Legault’s provincial counterparts do not have the same interests as Quebec.
The obvious risk for Quebec is that all the attention of these negotiations is on automobiles and oil, two sectors which concern us very little, and that subjects vital to Quebec are treated in a secondary manner or not even at all. at all, leading us to tariffs in these sectors. Aluminum, wood and the fate of SMEs that deal with New England in various sectors are therefore at risk.
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, leader of the Parti Québécois
He also notes that Alberta Prime Minister Danielle Smith plans to attend the inauguration ceremony of the new president and that Ontario’s Doug Ford is speaking about bilateral projects. “Each province has already started to place its pawns according to its own interests,” he says.
According to Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon, Donald Trump’s threats must be taken seriously. As for his fantasies about making Canada the 51ste American state, an idea that he describes as “lunar”, it goes without saying, he says, that the PQ will want to “oppose this project with the utmost energy”.
On the more specific question of the 25% tariffs that the next president says he wants to impose on all Canadian products entering the United States, “I have the same position as François Legault: we have no interest in getting angry in all directions, because it weakens us in negotiations.”
He recalls that historically, “Canada more or less tries to take into account the interests of each province to coordinate towards a single negotiating position with the Americans. However, this preparation did not make it possible to avoid several situations where Quebec’s interests were sacrificed during these negotiations due to the contradictory and incompatible nature of the interests of each province. »
While provinces like Ontario or Alberta are there to defend the automobile and hydrocarbon sectors respectively, Quebec must focus its efforts more on the most important sectors of its economy, “notably those agri-food, aluminum, wood and Quebec SMEs that do business in New England,” he emphasizes.
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