Legault congratulates Carney, says he's happy Canada has a PM with an economic background
Legault said he hoped Carney would prioritize negotiating a new trade deal with the U.S.
Premier François Legault struck an optimistic tone on Tuesday after Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal party won at least 42 seats in Quebec, the party's strongest showing in the province in decades.
Legault stressed that the two governments needed to work together in coming trade negotiations with the United States.
"We need to work hard, Ottawa and Quebec, to protect businesses, to protect jobs, and I'm happy also that during the campaign, Carney promised not to compromise on Quebec's interests," he said.
Legault said he was happy that Canada had a prime minister with an economic background, saying Carney had impressed him in their encounters. He said they shared a desire to invest in the development of clean energy, critical minerals and artificial intelligence.
Legault, who is approaching an electoral showdown of his own in Quebec next year, said he would continue to insist that a new Liberal government reduce temporary immigration levels. He has argued for years that immigration and the number of asylum seekers that Quebec had taken in was overwhelming the province's ability to integrate newcomers.
But on immigration, too, he expressed optimism about Carney, saying that he believed the prime minister intended to bring immigration to controllable levels, deport asylum seekers who had been denied asylum and protect the French language.
Responding to a reporter's question asking why he had chosen not to publicly support any candidate during the election campaign, Legault said it was up to Quebecers to decide.
"There are a number of priorities," he said, "but I think when it comes to the economy, Mr. Carney and myself and [Federal Finance Minister] François Philippe Champagne are pretty much on the same wavelength."
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the leader of the separatist Parti Québécois, took a very different tone regarding Carney. He criticized the federal Bloc Québécois for their willingness to work with Carney's Liberals and suggested they would have performed better in the election — they were poised to lose about 10 seats, most to the Liberals — had they taken a stronger stance against the Liberals.
"The strategy adopted by the Bloc, which validates Mark Carney as someone who is prepared to work with Quebec, set limits to what the Parti Québécois could do in the circumstances, because that's not what we think," he said.
Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet defended his approach, however, and said Quebec needed to be willing to work with the new government in Ottawa to advance the province's interests but insisted that Quebecers want stability within the new government — a prospect which will likely require collaboration between the Bloc and the Liberals.
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