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' I hope I will convince anglophones to be 100 per cent Quebecers' | The Corner Booth
Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon joins Bill and Aaron on this week's episode of The Corner Booth.
The Parti Québécois are leading in the polls with a provincial election coming next year.
At the moment, their competition is in disarray. The sagging CAQ and Premier François Legault are facing the wrath of doctors over Bill 2’s proposed renumeration reforms, while the Quebec Liberals are imploding over an alleged vote-buying scheme.
So even though PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is sitting pretty and promising a referendum on Quebec independence in his first term, he still wants anglophone and allophone voters to join his party.
St-Pierre Plamondon laid out his case for why together isn’t better with hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on the latest episode of The Corner Booth at the Snowdon Deli. St-Pierre Plamondon discussed the prospect of a new currency, dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump and the status of the CAQ and Quebec Liberals.
“ Why would anglophones always vote for the same party forever? Why would anglophones not be Quebecers and make a choice based on their best interest?” St-Pierre Plamondon said.
“ An animosity that would exist in the ’70s. You don’t find it anymore.”
In this case, Quebecers of all stripes could be looking for a better negotiating stance with doctors. Many doctors are already looking to close their practices here and head to Ontario should Bill 2 become law.
“The CAQ decided to have a war with doctors in order to wedge, because they’re so low in the polls,” St-Pierre Plamondon said.
“You can’t fool the population like the CAQ hoped.”
Even if St-Pierre Plamondon forms the government in a year, he may have a hard time convincing federalist voters a sovereignist party could have their interests at heart. Also, with current relations between Canada and U.S., could Quebec afford to go it alone in trade negotiations? St-Pierre Plamondon pointed out Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith went rogue on Trump in their own ways.
He also said the troubles with the U.S. started with former prime minister Justin Trudeau and how he “irritated the world with a mix of very poor intellectual capacity and very high arrogance.”
But, of course, with the PQ it always comes back to a referendum. St-Pierre Plamondon is up front about it, even if it doesn’t help in the polls.
“I hope I will convince anglophones to be a 100 per cent Quebecers,” he said. “Because the fact is they are. We are in the same boat, in the same society, and we’re dealing with the same problems, and we’re dealing with the same absurd Canadian policies that are imposed on us. That’s my point.”
[Source: The Montreal Gazette]
