Chris Selley: Does PSPP realize how unpopular he is? - National Post
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon gestures during the new cabinet's swearing-in ceremony at the National Assembly in Quebec City Wednesday October 21, 2026. Photo by Francis Vachon /PostmediaArticle contentYou may have read about Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s “new strategy” for sovereignty, and you might have thought, “Hang on, this sounds a lot like the old strategy” — namely, pick fights with Ottawa and pitch the slightest federal-government resistance as an intolerable affront to all Quebecers. But this time, as influential nationalist Quebec commentator Joseph Facal argued in an extraordinary encomium to PSPP (as St-Pierre Plamondon is nicknamed) in the Journal de Montréal, the approach is “uncompromising.”
So PSPP simply outright refused to attend this week’s Canada-EU meeting in Montreal. Because that would “compromise” Quebec’s sovereignty, in Facal’s view at least, and draw attention to the appalling reality: Quebec is part of Canada. To oversimplify: Hardcore sovereigntists tend to think nothing’s worth “sitting at the children’s table” of the federation along with all the other, lesser provinces. More strategic sovereigntists, and softer nationalists, tend to argue along the lines of, “if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
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As always, there are some, um, peculiarities in the sovereigntist position. One: PSPP sent his lead trade negotiator to the summit in his stead. So it’s not his government boycotting this intolerable event, just him. A bit curious, no? There was plenty of Quebec on hand for Thursday evening’s gala Canada-EU dinner, including former PQ premier Lucien Bouchard.
Two: this new “uncompromising sovereignty” thing leaves the federal Bloc Québécois in an interesting position. Its job is to compromise. BQ members compromise from the moment they run for the “King of England’s” loyal Parliament (as PSPP often calls the Canadian monarch), then take their seats in Parliament having sworn oaths of allegiance to the King of Canada.
While Northern Ireland’s Sinn Féin MPs don’t take their seats at Westminster in part precisely because they would have to swear the same basic oath, the Bloc tries to make the best of federal legislation for Quebec’s purposes. It’s a perfectly defensible, sensible policy. Does PSPP support that?
