{"id":655468,"date":"2026-05-08T07:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T07:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/655468\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T07:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T07:05:13","slug":"quebec-accuses-toronto-of-fear-campaign-in-defence-bank-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/655468\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec accuses Toronto of \u2018fear campaign\u2019 in defence bank bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Politicians in Quebec are accusing Toronto of waging a \u201cfear campaign\u201d by invoking the threat of a Quebec referendum<\/a> to undermine Montreal\u2019s bid to host a new multinational defence bank.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Canada has been chosen to host the headquarters of the institution, with Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver competing for the project, which is expected to create more than 3,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

The contest is intensifying as cities make their case, with Quebec\u2019s Premier, Christine Fr\u00e9chette, highlighting Montreal\u2019s strengths.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have expertise in aeronautics, aerospace and artificial intelligence,\u201d she said, adding the city has what it needs to welcome the bank.<\/p>\n

But a report published in Quebec\u2019s French language newspaper La Presse suggests promoters in Toronto are, behind the scenes, pointing to the possibility of another referendum to portray Montreal as a less stable choice.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part of a fear campaign,\u201d said Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois (PQ) MNA Pascal Paradis.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:33
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNATO\u2019s 1st-of-its-kind multinational defence bank to be headquartered in Canada\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The PQ is leading in the polls with five months to go before the next provincial election and has pledged to hold a referendum in its first mandate if elected.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n

Paradis rejected the idea that such a move would hurt the economy. \u201cWe must put aside this fear campaign, these fear tactics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Qu\u00e9bec solidaire, another sovereigntist party, echoed that position.
\u201cWhat I\u2019m afraid of is the real instability caused by Quebec being in Canada,\u201d said spokesperson Sol Zanetti.<\/p>\n

Fr\u00e9chette declined to weigh in on whether sovereignty concerns could weaken Montreal\u2019s bid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not getting into that,\u201d she said, adding she has not contacted Ontario Premier Doug Ford over the issue.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:03
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNATO multinational defence bank headquarters in Canada is \u2018good news\u2019: Carney\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Canada
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

The Quebec Liberal Party criticized the use of referendum fears in the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are asking the rest of Canada \u2014 those in this competition \u2014 don\u2019t go there. You don\u2019t need to go there,\u201d said Liberal MNA Marc Tanguay.<\/p>\n

Tanguay, however, said the prospect of a PQ government and a referendum is \u201ccreating economic instability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa are expected to continue lobbying in the coming weeks, with the federal government set to decide the winning city.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:43
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBC bidding to be home to multinational defence bank headquarters\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\tPrevious Video<\/p>\n

\t\tNext Video<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Politicians in Quebec are accusing Toronto of waging a \u201cfear campaign\u201d by invoking the threat of a Quebec…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,242872,295,714,906,160872,66],"class_list":["post-655468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-defence-bank","tag-environment","tag-politics","tag-quebec","tag-referendum","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}