Quebec is more than a month away from voters heading to the polls, but the mounting Canada-U.S. trade dispute is already transforming the provincial election campaign in an “unprecedented” fashion, according to political science experts.
“The U.S. is casting a shadow over the Quebec election in a way that’s very, I think — at least at the beginning of the campaign — determinative of how everything is shaping up,” Dónal Gill, who teaches political science at Dawson College, said in an interview Friday with The Gazette.
The collapse of talks at the 11th hour last week triggered tariffs on Canadian exports by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. Prime Minister Mark Carney fired back this week with counter-levies of up to 50 per cent on certain items. Quebec is bracing for the fallout, prompting concerns over lost jobs and higher costs.