Carney speaks with incoming Parti Québécois premier about priorities and working together

Prime Minister Mark Carney said the morning after the Parti Québécois’s electoral victory that the province and Canada can together fight for the prosperity of their people to ensure “we can live the way we want to live.”

Carney said Canada and Quebec are both at an inflection point in their histories as they face threats coming from the Trump administration.

“I just spoke with the new premier, premier-designate of Quebec Mr. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. I congratulated him on his victory. We discussed the ways that we would work together and some of the priorities,” Carney said on his way into a cabinet meeting early on Tuesday.

The prime minister’s comments come after St-Pierre Plamondon’s Parti Québécois ousted the sitting CAQ government in a provincial election that saw the sovereignist party secure a minority government.

“This is a crucial time for our country. It’s a crucial time for Quebec,” the prime minister said. “This is not a time to wait for something a few years down the road. It’s a time to act. It’s a time for boldness.”

Carney explained that bold action involves working together to build affordable housing, critical infrastructure, electricity capacity and initiatives that will mitigate the impact of U.S. tariffs on the province’s workers. 

Carney speaks to Quebec premier-designate, says they discussed ways to ‘work together’

The prime minister said Canada and Quebec are in a position to take advantage of economic opportunities to expand trade and build out the country in a way that strengthens “Canada’s resilience as a country so that we can live the way we want to live.”

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said that until the sovereignist movement has achieved independence for Quebec, St-Pierre Plamondon has told Blanchet he is “going to co-operate with the federal government because that’s in the interest of Quebec.”

“I’m old enough to have lived [through] the 1980 referendum with Mr. [René] Lévesque,” he said in the foyer of the House of Commons. “I’m very, very proud of what Paul and his team have achieved.”

That sentiment was echoed by Industry Minister Mélanie Joly who said the federal government will work with the newly elected government of Quebec using a “co-operative federalism approach” to protect jobs and build big things in the province to offset the impact of the ongoing trade war. 

“We have great ambitions for the province, and also for the country, and so it will be a pleasure for me to work with my future counterpart,” Joly said. 

What a Parti Québécois comeback means for Quebec & Canada

Joly noted that the PQ will need to “work with the opposition” which means “showing some flexibility” to get things done.

Founded in the late 1960s as a pro-independence party, it was Parti Québécois governments that held the province’s last two referendums on separation.

St-Pierre Plamondon campaigned on holding a third referendum, but says he will wait until the end of the Trump administration before doing so.

Montreal MP and cabinet minister Marc Miller said “Quebecers have spoken” and he wishes St-Pierre Plamondon “good luck,” but noted that the incoming premier has an obligation to work for the whole province, not just those advocating for separation.

“He’s my premier and as a Quebecer I expect him to behave that way … we’re willing to work with him to get things done for my nation and for Canada,” Miller said. 

The minister of Canadian identity, culture and official languages said he understands that some Canadians in both Quebec and Alberta feel alienated from the federation. But he said that feeling may be changing in Alberta and that he is willing to do the work to ensure it changes in Quebec.

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“As a Quebecer the sentiment of alienation isn’t foreign to me,” he said. “I care about my country, I am willing to fight for it.”

Asked about the threat of separation from the new Parti Québécois government, Carney simply reminded Canadians that in the last federal election 43 per cent of Quebecers voted for the Liberals. 

The separatist Bloc Québécois, meanwhile, secured 28 per cent of the vote in 2025 — the same level of support the Parti Québécois earned Monday evening.   

Blanchet pointed out that while St-Pierre Plamondon will lead a minority government, the combined seats held by Quebec’s two sovereignist parties, the PQ and Quebec Solidaire, add up to a majority in the Quebec legislature.

“This is an extraordinary day,” Blanchet said. “This is not quite as fun for the naysayers who were saying that this was all over, it would never come back. But yes it did come back and we’re going to make sure that we end up in victory.”

‘We have to protect our country’ says Conservative Quebec MP

In a post on X, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre congratulated St-Pierre Plamondon for earning “the trust of Quebecers.”

“The federal Conservatives will work with all members of the National Assembly to lower the cost of living, protect our jobs, ensure the safety of our communities, reform our immigration system and put Canada first,” he said, referring to the province’s legislature.

Poilievre also congratulated Éric Duhaime, the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec which secured 19 seats on Monday evening — up from just one seat when the election was called.

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That result left Québec Solidaire in fourth place with nine seats, the Quebec Liberals as Official Opposition with 40 seats and the Parti Québécois with 59 seats, just five shy of a majority. 

The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), which had won majority governments in 2022 and 2018, was wiped off the electoral map after losing all of its seats in the legislature.