Marc-Olivier Fortin: How Quebec’s new premier put Carney in a corner - National Post

Copy URL Facebook Linked In X (Twitter) Loading account options Sign In Manage Account Close account menu Sign Out Paul St-Pierre Plamondon gestures during the new cabinet's swearing-in ceremony at the National Assembly in Quebec City Wednesday October 21, 2026. (Francis Vachon / Postmedia) By Marc-Olivier Fortin November 2, 2026 at 12:43 p.m. Pierre Poilievre might have found an unlikely source of ammunition in Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. The separatist was elected less than a month ago, and he already poses a problem for Mark Carney’s unifying narrative. The most recent showdown between Carney and PSPP over the Canada-Europe summit held in Montreal gave plenty of ammunition to the Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives during Question Period.

Since becoming prime minister, Carney has been governing like a CEO trying to dictate the rules by which all provinces must abide in order to grow the country. Using the sense of urgency created by the tariff war with the United States, Carney has so far had little trouble imposing his agenda.

Most premiers have largely played along. Doug Ford has become a reliable ally, while Danielle Smith has adopted a less combative posture toward Ottawa. PSPP is different.

PSPP quickly became a pebble in Carney’s shoe. Two weeks ago, he decided to skip Ottawa’s First Nations summit, insisting Quebec would instead meet Indigenous nations directly, “nation to nation.” Quebec left an empty chair.

Last week, the confrontation escalated at the Canada-Europe summit in Montreal. PSPP asked to deliver a short speech to welcome the European delegation and to talk about the bond that unites Quebec and Europe. Ottawa refused. PSPP then declined to attend, invoking Quebec’s longstanding claim to an international role in areas under its jurisdiction, a principle he later reiterated in a letter to the prime minister.

All in all, PSPP did not give an inch and held his ground, transforming Carney’s summit into a federal-provincial tug-of-war rather than the display of national unity Carney wanted in the common goal of diversifying our markets. While picking a fight over a three-minute speech might seem trivial, from PSPP’s standpoint, it is anything but. Quebec has long been recognized as a nation within Canada. If Quebec cannot even welcome foreign leaders meeting on its own territory, what exactly does recognition as a nation mean? In federal-provincial relations, the smallest dispute often reveals the largest disagreements.

None of this should surprise anyone. PSPP’s objective is not to manage Canadian federalism more effectively, but ultimately to leave it. Determined to create the country of Quebec, he is already acting like its prime minister. PSPP may have formed government with the lowest share of the popular vote in Quebec history, but this government has full democratic legitimacy. He is currently trying to demonstrate what a Quebec government confident in its own capacity can do.

More importantly, PSPP and Carney have fundamentally opposed political objectives. Carney needs to show that Canada works. PSPP needs to expose the limits of Canadian federalism if he hopes to build support for an independence referendum. This is fundamentally different from his predecessor François Legault, who tried to show the gains Quebec could make while staying in the federation. PSPP ultimately wants to demonstrate that Quebec can do better outside of it. An unsuccessful negotiation is therefore politically useful for PSPP in a way it was not for Legault.

Carney understands how detrimental this could become, which helps explain why he is seeking to meet with PSPP quickly. He cannot realize his “one country, one economy” vision without Quebec. While Carney remains very high in the polls in Quebec (47 per cent according to Canada338), it is the first time that a provincial leader has stood firm against him.

The Catch-22 for Carney is that if he caves to PSPP, PSPP can claim that confrontation works. If he refuses to cave, PSPP can say Ottawa doesn’t respect Quebec. Either way, PSPP gets material for the argument he ultimately wants to make.

PSPP is the premier of a province that has been recognized as a nation and will act accordingly. He will not let Ottawa set the rules of the game on Quebec territory. He intends to set them himself. Being flexible here and there is not necessarily diplomacy or a gesture of friendship. For PSPP, it risks signalling acceptance of the federal program. Quebec has its own program, on its own terms, and you can expect PSPP to fight Carney every step of the way because doing otherwise, even if it is only over a three-minute speech, is to lose control of the narrative that Quebec is a nation capable of charting its own course.

The last two weeks have already provided plenty of opportunities for PSPP to fight the federal government, and we can expect more of them. That will provide ammunition for a federal Conservative party that is in dire need of Carney’s mistakes. The Bloc can attack Carney for failing to respect Quebec’s autonomy, while the Conservatives can accuse him of pursuing an approach that fuels separatism. The arguments are different, but they both land their mark on Carney.

Carney’s image could therefore suffer without Conservatives ever getting their hands dirty. Poilievre does not need PSPP to win every fight. He simply needs PSPP to keep starting them. Perhaps this is what the resurgence of “les bleus” looks like in modern Quebec politics.

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I could drive for 25 straight hours west and the time zone would still be the same until I hit Saskatchewan. Unless I went through the U.S.

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