Parti Quebecois leader calls on Premier Legault to create ‘Team Quebec’ in face of tariff threat

Parti Quebecois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon (right) along with Premier Francois Legault (right), interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay (middle) and Quebec Solidaire co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal (behind Plamondon). (Jacques Boissinot / The Canadian Press)

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is calling on Francois Legault to create a “Team Quebec” (Équipe Québec) comprising the opposition parties, academics and organizations to deal with the tariff threats made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

The Parti Québécois (PQ) leader argues that these players do not have “conflicting political interests” on issues that directly affect Quebec.

“We all have an interest in defending the Quebec economy as best we can in this stormy context. This working committee could start work on Monday and submit its recommendations immediately,” he wrote in a long message on his Facebook page.

In the face of what he described as “a complete disorganization of the Canadian position with regard to Donald Trump's intention to impose tariffs on us,” the PQ leader felt that it was “vital to have Quebec's demands and a very clear Quebec strategy in hand, which must be implemented now” in anticipation of the announced trip by a number of provincial premiers -- including François Legault -- to Washington on Feb. 12.

The Quebec position is all the more essential, he says, as Legault's provincial counterparts do not have the same interests as Quebec.

“The obvious risk for Quebec is that all the attention in these negotiations will be focused on cars and oil, two sectors that have very little to do with us, and that issues vital to Quebec will be treated as secondary or not at all, leading to tariffs in these sectors,” he said. “Aluminium, timber and the fate of SMEs that do business with New England in various sectors are therefore at risk.”

He also noted that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is planning to attend the inauguration ceremony of the new president, while Ontario's Doug Ford is talking about bilateral projects: “Each province has already started to position its pawns according to its own interests.”

According to St-Pierre Plamondon, Trump's threats must be taken seriously. As for his flights of fancy about making Canada the 51st American state, an idea he describes as “lunaire,” it goes without saying, he says, that the PQ will want to “oppose this project with every ounce of energy.”

On the more specific question of the 25 per cent tariffs that the next president says he wants to impose on all Canadian products entering the United States, “I have the same position as François Legault: it is not in our interest to get worked up in every direction, because that weakens us in the negotiations.”

He pointed out that historically, “Canada has more or less tried to take account of the interests of each province in order to coordinate towards a single negotiating position with the Americans. This preparation has not, however, made it possible to avoid a number of situations where Quebec's interests have been sacrificed in these negotiations because of the contradictory and incompatible nature of each province's interests.

“While provinces such as Ontario and Alberta are there to defend the automotive and oil and gas sectors respectively, Quebec must focus its efforts more on the most important sectors of its economy, particularly agri-food, aluminium, wood and Quebec SMEs doing business in New England,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 9, 2025.