Quebec Liberal leader accuses his opponents of wanting to 'shrink' the province

Quebec Liberal Party interim Leader Marc Tanguay speaks at a news conference on the last day of a pre-session caucus meeting, Thursday, January 25, 2024 in Thetford Mines, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

Interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay is pleased with Quebec's demographic growth.

In his view, it goes hand in hand with economic growth, which is the solution to the challenges facing the province.

He also took the opportunity to slam his opponents, who, in his view, want to "shrink" Quebec.

"For the Liberal Party, it's good news that we have nine million people (in Quebec). Our services are going to need more growth. We need to address the labour shortage. That takes immigration," he said at a news briefing on Thursday, the final day of his party's pre-sessional caucus in Thetford Mines.

On Thursday morning Statistics Canada reported that Quebec had just passed the nine million mark in population.

That's an increase of 800 people a day. This increase is mainly due to immigration.

"We're going to leave it to others to propose shrinking Quebec, closing the borders, making sure that others are viewed with a certain mistrust. We'll leave that to the Parti Québécois, the Coalition Avenir Québec and Québec solidaire," he said.

On Thursday, when asked about the demographic pressure on social services and housing, the Liberal leader replied that "all these extremely important issues can be met with economic growth."

According to him, Quebec will have no choice but to take on more immigrants in the next few years in order to make up for the labour shortage.

There are currently more than half a million temporary immigrants in Quebec.

"Economic growth is the foundation on which we will be able to meet all our objectives, including the fight against climate change," he added.

Tanguay wants to use his arguments to position himself in relation to the other political parties.

"We're going to leave (economic) decline in Quebec to François Legault, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and Québec solidaire," said the Liberal leader.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 25, 2024.