Quebec election campaign opens with a focus on Trump

QUEBEC CITY (AP) — Quebec’s governing party launched its election campaign Thursday by naming an unusual adversary: U.S. President Donald Trump.

“My opponent is named Donald Trump,” Coalition Avenir Québec Leader Christine Fréchette said as campaigning began for the Oct. 5 vote to choose Quebec’s National Assembly, the provincial legislature. “He’s the real adversary.”

Trump’s trade war with Canada has become an issue in provincial politics, particularly in Quebec, where U.S. tariffs are hitting major industries and his repeated talk of making Canada the 51st state has complicated a decades-old debate over whether the predominantly French-speaking province should leave Canada.

Fréchette said her government is best positioned to protect Quebec businesses and workers from the economic uncertainty coming from the United States.

“I’m asking for a mandate to move forward through a storm,” she said.

Her main rival is the separatist Parti Québécois, which has promised another referendum on independence if it forms the government.

But its leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, said earlier this month that he would not hold such a vote while Trump remains president, arguing that Quebecers should be able to consider their future without the uncertainty created by Trump.

Trump’s tariffs and 51st-state rhetoric have complicated the separatist argument by stirring Canadian nationalism and giving some French-speaking Quebecers another reason to value the protection that comes with remaining part of Canada.

St-Pierre Plamondon warned Thursday that Trump should not be allowed to dominate Quebec’s election.

“Let’s not let the tariffs of Donald Trump’s administration confiscate this important debate from us; let’s not let him confiscate our election,” he said.

Fréchette took over the Coalition Avenir Québec in April after former Premier François Legault stepped down. The party has governed Quebec for eight years.

Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard made the opposite case from the separatists, arguing that Trump’s trade war shows why Quebec benefits from remaining in Canada.

“In the context of an international trade war, we’re stronger as 41 million people,” he said.

Trump’s tariffs and repeated threats against Canada became a defining issue in the 2025 federal election, helping lift Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals to victory after the party had trailed badly before Trump returned to office.

Quebec, home to 9.1 million people and about 80% French-speaking, has broad autonomy within Canada, including its own income-tax system, immigration policies favoring French speakers and laws giving French priority over English.

The trade dispute has also touched one of Quebec’s most sensitive issues. Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Thursday that Washington had dropped objections to measures promoting French-language and Canadian cultural content, after Carney said U.S. negotiators had raised them as trade irritants.