Marc-Olivier Fortin: The CAQ’s desperate attempt to link the PQ to Trump

Leader of the Parti Quebecois (PQ) Paul St-Pierre Plamondon (L) and Leader of the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) Christine Frechette(R) participate in the third and final televised Quebec election debate in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on September 23, 2026. Photo by CHRISTOPHER KATSAROV /POOL/AFP via Getty Images

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The latest seat projection from poll aggregator QC125 on Sunday puts the incumbent Coalition Avenir Québec at a mere six seats, with the possibility of being shut out of the national assembly altogether. According to the last Synopsis poll, also published Sunday, the CAQ is sitting at 17 per cent and the Parti Québécois is comfortably in majority territory at 30 per cent. Not long ago, thanks in part to U.S. trade tensions, the CAQ was just four points behind the PQ. But the early success of CAQ Leader Christine Fréchette’s strategy of campaigning against U.S. President Donald Trump was short-lived, and the party has been struggling ever since, suffering from, among other things, a disastrous debate performance last week.

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As election day approaches next Monday, we may have just witnessed what a campaign looks like when it is running out of options: a desperate political Hail Mary. On Friday, the Journal de Montréal reported on concerns about possible foreign interference, regarding an American think-tank called Defense Analyses and Research Corporation, which has argued that the U.S. government should support the PQ and favour the sovereigntist movement. The federal government apparently informed the CAQ of the potential threat at the beginning of September, and according to the Journal, the governing party had been made aware of the possibility of election interference on two other occasions: early 2026, and within the previous week.

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Curiously enough, it turns out, these allegations of interference have been public for months, but it was only two days before advance polling began that they became part of the election campaign.

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In a news conference on Friday, Fréchette claimed to only have been told about the think-tank’s online writings last Saturday. “I only learned of this recently,” she said. She also used the occasion to request a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney, claiming the federal government had the tools to deal with the matter. When pressed on why the prime minister needed to get involved, Fréchette struggled to provide a clear answer. (The Prime Minister’s Office told the Journal de Montréal that allegations of foreign interference are taken seriously.)

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Fréchette also confirmed that the United States tried to bypass Ottawa in trade negotiations, in an attempt to negotiate directly with Quebec on certain sectors, suggesting that the province is viewed as vulnerable to foreign pressure in the current political environment.

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Things got more interesting on Sunday when it was revealed that the CAQ campaign team obtained copies of the documents from the pro-Trump group calling for the U.S. to support the PQ in order to destabilize the country at least 10 days before informing the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and at least a week before Fréchette said she was informed. What we know is that instead of going to CSIS right away, which would have been appropriate if the threat was genuine, the party has tried since Sept. 12 to persuade reporters to write a story about it in the hope that it would link the PQ to Trump.

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The CAQ did contact CSIS on Sept. 22 and met with officials the following day. CSIS responded that the information was already known to the public. The think-tank’s articles are all easily accessed on the web and other newspapers, including Le Devoir, had already referred to them months earlier, in March.