EDITORIAL: Memo to Trudeau: Canada’s not for sale

Published Sep 19, 2024  •  2 minute read

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises during Question Period, Wednesday, September 18, 2024 in Ottawa. Photo by Adrian Wyld /The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is so weak that it now has to rely on appeasing Canada’s separatist party — the Bloc Quebecois — to survive.

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This is such a bad situation that normally we would hope even Trudeau’s Liberal MPs in Ottawa would be making it clear to the PM that Canada is not for sale to the highest bidder, especially a bidder whose goal is to have Quebec separate from Canada.

But the Liberals are so obsessed with their own political survival these days, that we fear they will sacrifice the best interests of Canada, in order to avoid an immediate election which, according to numerous opinion polls, they would lose — massively — to Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives.

This sorry state of affairs arises because, now that NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has abandoned his deal with the Liberals which would have postponed a federal election until next fall, the control of the Trudeau government’s fate is in the hands of BQ leader Yves-Francois Blanchet and his separatist party.

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That’s because in order for a non-confidence motion by the Conservatives to be voted on in Parliament next week to succeed — thus bringing down the Trudeau government leading to an immediate election — both the BQ and NDP would have to vote in favour of it.

But Blanchet has already said he won’t support the motion — for now —and that his price for allowing the Trudeau government to survive — for now —  will be more political concessions from Trudeau that will benefit Quebec.

By contrast, Quebec Premier Francois Legault is urging the BQ to bring down the Trudeau government and force an election.

Legault said the Trudeau government can no longer be trusted to act in Quebec’s best interest because of its policies encroaching on provincial powers, as well as its failure to fairly compensate Quebec for its huge intake of asylum seekers and temporary immigrants.

Legault urged Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, whose provincial party also supports Quebec separation, to put pressure on the BQ to bring down the Trudeau government next week, but both Plamondon and  Blanchet have rejected that idea.

That means the Trudeau government will survive only as long as it makes concessions to Quebec approved by separatists, which is appalling.

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