François Legault tries to put the toothpaste back in the tube, after calling for the fall of Justin Trudeau’s government. He is now asking all federal parties to commit to reducing temporary immigration to Quebec.
“What I hope is that the question at the ballot box during the next federal election will be on immigration. And then we will try, with the government in place in Ottawa between now and this federal election, to convince them to finally reduce the number of temporary immigrants,” said the Quebec Prime Minister on Thursday, in a press scrum at the National Assembly.
For several days, François Legault has been accused of taking Pierre Poilievre’s side. He defends it vigorously and he wanted to readjust his approach on Thursday. The leader of the CAQ admitted that the Conservative Party of Canada (PCC) has never gotten involved in immigration.
“I expect all federal parties to make commitments to reduce the number of temporary immigrants by half,” insisted the Prime Minister. I expect all parties in Ottawa to place their confidence in Justin Trudeau’s government conditional on this [qu’il] commits to halving the number of temporary immigrants.”
François Legault did not fail to shoot an arrow at his rival Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
“What do you mean the Parti Québécois is not asking its comrade Yves-François Blanchet to demand that Mr. Trudeau reduce the number of temporary immigrants by half?” he taunted.
What if Poilievre made a promise to Quebec
The PQ leader said he was speaking to his Bloc counterpart, but remained evasive on the content of the discussions. PSPP nevertheless admitted that it wanted immigration to be put on the program of its sister party in Ottawa by the deadline set by Yves-François Blanchet. “Look carefully at what will happen over the next few weeks. It is not said that the Bloc will not follow up on the request,” he said.
The sovereignist leader stressed that a firm promise from Pierre Poilievre to grant all immigration powers to Quebec would change the situation.
He is not ready to say that the PCC would make a good government, but he mentions being “ready to concede that if such a commitment is a formal and electoral commitment of the conservatives, that changes the discussion.” “But I’ll believe it when I see it,” he adds.
