Outside the United States Consulate in Montreal earlier this week, a few dozen people gathered to show their support for Canada in the face of the threats of the president of the United States, Donald Trump.
Among them was a supporter of Bloc by Lucie Nucciaroni, in French, in French, “Canada will always remain Canadian.”
Nucciaroni described herself as a sovereign of Quebec, but said in this choice, preserving Canada’s sovereignty is even more important.
“I think of my children and my grandchildren. We cannot live as Americans,” said Nucciaroni. “Quebec needs Canada and Canada needs Quebec.”
She plans to vote liberal.
Nucciaroni’s heart change is reflected in what pollsters say it seems to be a broader change over the province.
Quebec nationalism and provincial problems, such as language, immigration and secularism, are often great in federal electoral campaigns, but tariffs and the threat of making Canada the State 51 has restructured the campaign so far.
“He is weighing a lot in Quebecers in the same way that he is wearing the Canadians,” said Sébastien Dallaire, executive vice president of the Voting Firm Leger.
“It makes it more difficult to talk about Quebec’s sovereignty when the whole country is being threatened by our giant neighbor.”
The tariff threats and the rhetoric of the president of the United States on Canada that become the 51st state are restructuring the federal electoral campaign for cheese so that they were almost unimaginable only a few months ago.
Increasing patriotism
Before the inauguration of Trump, the block was far ahead in opinion surveys, and support for liberals under Justin Trudeau had created.
Now, the liberals, as in other parts of the country, have enjoyed a resurgence in Quebec under the new leader Mark Carney. And the block is at risk of reviewing those losses.
“Patriotism has increased and has noted significantly in Quebec,” Dallaire said. “There is the feeling that we need to be in this together as a country, trying to defend ourselves against threats from the United States.”
Out of the 78 Quebec seats, CBC survey tracker He estimates that the liberals could choose between 38 and 46 parliamentarians, followed by the block with between 19 and 27 years, conservatives with between 11 and 14 and the NDP retain their solitary seat.
In solution, the block and the liberals had 33 seats, followed by the conservatives with nine and the NDP and an independent with one (another seat was vacant).
The altered political climate Trump presents a challenge for the particular block, said Brooke Jeffrey, professor of political science at the University of Concordia.
“They really can’t talk about separation,” he said. “It is clearly not on the table.”
Jeffrey said that the block has lost its main reason for being in a political context where the federal government is “seen as the best way to protect Quebec’s language and culture.”
- What question does these federal elections care more and why? Share your personal stories with us in ask@cbc.ca.
Yves-François Blanchet, the leader of the block, has succeeded in the past presenting his party as a defender of Quebec’s interests in Ottawa.
When asked at the beginning of the campaign, what he would try to do differently in Trump’s era, Blanchet minimized the question.
“We will support what is good for Quebec,” he said. “You should never vote for fear. One should try to find reason in what he or she listens or reads. We will try to force logic, rationality and information.”
The leader of Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, who speaks in Montreal on day 4 of the electoral campaign, is asked who prefers to collaborate and be the next prime minister.
Continuations
In the driving of Lasalle – Émard – Verdun, where the block won in September for just over 200 votes, the victory could be more difficult this time.
The liberals ended secondly, closely followed by the NDP in third place.
Robert Languedoc, a voter who lives in driving, said the economy and Trump will be the most important when he broadcasts his ballot, and will not vote the block.
“We need to have a strong Canada,” said Languedoc, who voted for the separatist Pari Québécois in the provincial elections.
“To have a strong Canada, you have to make people vote for the same person.”
David Nguyen, a teacher of a school in the riding that went home for the day, said he has not decided who to vote. In the past, he supported Trudeau’s liberals, but said he would expect to see which party seems better prepared to deal with the Trump administration.
“I think that if there is someone who has the person and the charisma so that it coincides with whatever is happening there, that is probably the person I would vote,” he said.
Another voter, Sylvie Deruisseaux, said that NDP generally votes, but said that “it is not time for a change, it is time to be strong against Mr. Trump.”
This is Montreal20:07For some Quebec voters, they are elbows at the polls
In general, it could be Quebec’s sovereignty the one on the table at the time of the elections. But this time, with the threats of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, of tariffs and annexation, some Quebec voters, such as those of Canada, have Canadian sovereignty in their minds. We will see what that could mean for the electoral map in Quebec.
Prime Minister François Legault, who in the last elections suggested that a conservative minority would be the best option for Quebec, also did not want to choose a favorite, this time between Carney and conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
“I won’t answer this question,” he said when asked last week. “I will be happy to work with any of them and I hope they do a good job. Both.”
Even so, Dallaire, the pollster, said that the electoral landscape in the province remains unpredictable, and the conservatives, NDP or block could obtain profits, with Carney in his first election campaign.
Already this week, the liberal leader had to apologize after confusing the Massacre of 1989 Ecole Polytechnique with a shooting at school different years later at the University of Concordia.
Blanchet and Poilievre also criticized Carney for refusing to pay $ 75,000 to participate in a second French debate, organized by TVA. Since then it has been canceled.
“It’s a campaign like no other,” said Dallaire.
“The name of the game that reaches the elections is volatility, and we can expect to see more volatility in the coming weeks.”
