{"id":953068,"date":"2026-10-31T11:12:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T11:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/953068\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T11:12:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T11:12:20","slug":"chris-selley-does-pspp-realize-how-unpopular-he-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/953068\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Selley: Does PSPP realize how unpopular he is?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may have read about Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon\u2019s \u201cnew strategy\u201d for sovereignty, and you might have thought, \u201cHang on, this sounds a lot like the old strategy\u201d \u2014 namely, pick fights with Ottawa and pitch the slightest federal-government resistance as an intolerable affront to all Quebecers. But this time, as influential nationalist Quebec commentator Joseph Facal argued in an extraordinary encomium to PSPP<\/a> (as St-Pierre Plamondon is nicknamed) in the Journal de Montr\u00e9al, the approach is \u201cuncompromising.\u201d<\/p>\n

So PSPP simply outright refused to attend<\/a> this week\u2019s Canada-EU meeting in Montreal. Because that would \u201ccompromise\u201d Quebec\u2019s sovereignty, in Facal\u2019s view at least, and draw attention to the appalling reality: Quebec is part of Canada. To oversimplify: Hardcore sovereigntists tend to think nothing\u2019s worth \u201csitting at the children\u2019s table\u201d<\/a> of the federation along with all the other, lesser provinces. More strategic sovereigntists, and softer nationalists, tend to argue along the lines of, \u201cif we\u2019re not at the table, we\u2019re on the menu.\u201d<\/p>\n

As always, there are some, um, peculiarities in the sovereigntist position. One: PSPP sent his lead trade negotiator<\/a> to the summit in his stead. So it\u2019s not his government boycotting this intolerable event, just him. A bit curious, no? There was plenty of Quebec on hand for Thursday evening\u2019s gala Canada-EU dinner, including former PQ premier Lucien Bouchard.<\/p>\n

Two: this new \u201cuncompromising sovereignty\u201d thing leaves the federal Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois in an interesting position. Its job is to compromise. BQ members compromise from the moment they run for the \u201cKing of England\u2019s\u201d loyal Parliament (as PSPP often calls<\/a> the Canadian monarch), then take their seats in Parliament having sworn oaths of allegiance to the King of Canada.<\/p>\n

While Northern Ireland\u2019s Sinn F\u00e9in MPs don\u2019t take their seats at Westminster in part precisely because they would have to swear the same basic oath, the Bloc tries to make the best of federal legislation for Quebec\u2019s purposes. It\u2019s a perfectly defensible, sensible policy. Does PSPP support that?<\/p>\n

The premier is certainly on a fascinating journey. He doesn\u2019t lack for confidence, which I suppose is a positive, but it\u2019s to the point that he seems to overestimate his and the sovereignty movement\u2019s popularity. Twenty-eight per cent of the popular vote (the PQ\u2019s haul on Oct. 5<\/a>) is even lower than than 30-ish per cent support for sovereignty, which is where polls have been stalled for many years. The PQ\u2019s vote efficiency, and the provincial Liberals\u2019 lack thereof \u2014 they only finished four points behind the PQ \u2014 don\u2019t matter in a referendum.<\/p>\n

Already PSPP shows signs of Mark Carney-style overconfidence, just with much less voter support. He declined this week<\/a> to attend a summit involving Prime Minister Carney, all the other provincial premiers and First Nations leaders. I can\u2019t see how that decision left him and his movement any better off. He needs those First Nations leaders. Sovereigntists wish they didn\u2019t have to deal with Indigenous Quebecers, their irksome nations and their backward insistence on their treaties with the \u201cKing of England\u201d (as PSPP would put it<\/a>), not to mention their near-total historic opposition to sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Now the PQ has peeved a not-insignificant voting bloc \u2014 Indigenous people accounted for 2.5 per cent of the province\u2019s population as of the 2021 Census; it will certainly be higher today. The press reaction I\u2019ve seen has topped out at half-hearted support, and only in the context of \u201cuncompromising\u201d sovereignty. But successful uncompromising sovereignty would have to deal with First Nations along with everything else real live grown-up nations do. \u201cUncompromising sovereignty\u201d cannot involve shirking these responsibilities.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s PSPP\u2019s penchant for demagoguery. On Wednesday, after Carney offered PSPP a seat at the head table for the dinner, but not a speech, the premier unleashed a 300-word diatribe that can only be described as unhinged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis proposal essentially asks Quebec to fall into line \u2014 (re-enforcing) our vassalization and erasure \u2014 in exchange for a better seat from which to watch the game,\u201d he fumed. \u201cWe are facing a strategy designed to marginalize Quebec on the global stage and to subordinate Quebec\u2019s areas of jurisdiction to the will of the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

So said the only premier to get an invitation to the head table. Of a province that gets basically anything it wants.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t yet seen a poll on Quebecers\u2019 attitudes toward all this. I would be shocked and disappointed if many cared at all. I\u2019m positive many wouldn\u2019t have cared before the PQ or the pollster brought it up, and dearly hope any poll asks people how much they actually give a hoot. The priorities of the political class and those of normal people have always been somewhat at odds in Quebec politics. PSPP seems to be diving headlong into the political-class periphery here.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t\t\tChris Selley has been a columnist at National Post since 2009, covering Toronto City Hall, Queen\u2019s Park and federal politics, after starting his career at Maclean\u2019s magazine. \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tcselley@postmedia.com
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