“We will indeed experience a third referendum” on sovereignty, declared Parti Quebecois (PQ) leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon on Sunday, as he is convinced of being able to form the next government in 2026.
He suggested this future referendum could very well be that of the last chance because of the “existential threat” from the federal government “against our people.”
Galvanized by the polls which repeatedly placed him in first position, he was cheered on by around 500 party members and observers gathered at the party’s national council in Drummondville.
“Our moment will arrive,” he said, the moment in question being when Quebecers will be able to choose independence after the two previous referendum failures, in 1980 and 1995.
“We have a duty to win to get out of our defeatism,” he said adding that it is “our ultimate chance to give ourselves linguistic and cultural sustainability” because time is running out and the political weight of Quebec within the federation continues to decline.
The independence leader also engaged in fierce criticism of the “federal regime,” as he describes it.
“It’s a regime that only wants to crush those who refuse to assimilate,” he said.
In a long speech, St-Pierre Plamondon reached out to citizens of all political orientations to achieve independence, as polls suggest that the party would remain more popular than the independence option, still stuck under the 50 per cent mark.
“Sooner or later we will have the duty to form the largest coalition for Yes (to independence) that Quebec will ever know. (….) Whether you are conservative, progressive, centrist, libertarian, economic right or even ‘Pastafarian’, it does not matter, given the state of the nation,” he said.
He called on Quebecers to think like “builders, entrepreneurs, winners,” to use his words.
“Think like Alphonse and Dorimène Desjardins, think like Bombardier, think like Maurice Richard! We have it in us, it’s in our DNA,” he said.
He also maintained that “the Parti Québécois (PQ) is indeed the leading political force in Quebec.”
He recognized that nothing suggested his party would be in this position when he was elected in 2020 to head the PQ, then at its lowest in the polls.
He affirmed that it is because the PQ tried to change the course of history that it managed to claw its way back, particularly when the PQ elected officials refused to take the obligatory oath to the king after the 2022 election.
St-Pierre Plamondon also saluted the farmers who are demonstrating throughout Quebec due to a crisis that has been recognized by the CAQ government.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 14, 2024.