Joly accuses PQ leader of steering Quebec toward Trump with U.S. outreach

Federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says she is troubled to hear the Parti Québécois (PQ) leader call for a “closer relationship” with the United States if Quebec were to become an independent country.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday, she said PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon wants “to make Quebec much weaker in the face of an America that is gaining enormous power,” adding that he risks “throwing Quebec into the arms of Donald Trump.”

For several weeks, St-Pierre Plamondon has been gradually unveiling his Blue Book, which lays out his vision for a sovereign Quebec. Earlier this month, he presented an overview of its section on international relations.

He argued that Quebec has every reason to maintain “direct and constructive” relations with its southern neighbor, even amid global instability, and has said that Canada is “no longer a shield but a cacophony.”

“We have a vested interest in speaking with our own voice and establishing our own diplomacy in Washington — a diplomacy that is less arrogant and far more down-to-earth than Canada’s in recent years,” he said at a news conference.

The PQ leader also plans to tour the United States in early 2026.

Joly said the PQ’s proposed “closer relationship” with Washington is “extremely concerning,” particularly “at a time when Canadian sovereignty in general is being undermined by the United States,” the Liberal minister said.

Responding to her comments, PQ MNA Alex Boissonneault countered that “the only person actually handing Quebec over to Donald Trump is Mark Carney and the Liberal Party of Canada.

On Saturday, St-Pierre Plamondon announced that an independent Quebec would introduce its own currency, gradually phasing out the Canadian dollar over a period of up to ten years.

To this point, Joly argued that such a plan would reduce Quebecers’ purchasing power.

“We know that any currency reflects the size of the economy. And while Quebec’s economy is significant, it remains much smaller than Canada’s,” she said.

Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet said Joly “may have done a diagonal and hostile reading” of the PQ’s proposals, suggesting she is relying on fear. “When you put what she said about Quebec’s potential ability to have its own currency one day in the same sentence as Donald Trump, you’re taking a big risk. Because fear-mongering is Trump’s strategy — and it works,” Blanchet told reporters.

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Although the PQ says it leans toward adopting a Quebec currency, it maintains that an independent commission would be created to issue recommendations after Quebec becomes a country. That commission could ultimately recommend against creating a new currency.

Liberal MNA Frédéric Beauchemin urged the PQ to stop “talking nonsense,” arguing that separation would cut Quebec off from existing economic agreements, create “an unprecedented wave of economic instability,” and pull Quebec out of NATO.

“Monetary policy is not a fairy tale. What you’re proposing will result in an incalculable decline in the purchasing power of Quebecers,” Beauchemin, the party’s finance critic, wrote on X.

‘The duty to build a different Quebec’

“We have the right, but above all, the duty to build a different Quebec than the Quebec of decline,” St-Pierre Plamondon told several hundred supporters gathered in Sherbrooke, Que., on Sunday, less than a year before the next provincial election.

“The Quebec of decline that has been imposed on us by the federal government, the CAQ, and the Quebec Liberal Party for several years now,” he said.

St-Pierre Plamondon has said his government would hold a sovereignty referendum during its first term if elected, even though a majority of Quebecers currently oppose independence.

The PQ has been climbing in the polls for nearly two years while François Legault’s CAQ struggles with public opinion.

Polling aggregator Qc125 suggests the CAQ could be virtually wiped off the electoral map if an election were held today, with the Quebec Liberals emerging as the PQ’s most likely challenger.

— With files from The Canadian Press