{"id":441003,"date":"2026-01-31T14:32:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/441003\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T14:32:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:32:25","slug":"doug-ford-trades-barbs-with-parti-quebecois-leader-over-sovereignty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/441003\/","title":{"rendered":"Doug Ford trades barbs with Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois leader over sovereignty"},"content":{"rendered":"

The leader of the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois and\u00a0Ontario\u00a0Premier Doug Ford traded barbs Thursday after the latter dipped his toe in Quebec politics<\/a> for a second straight day repeating that it would be a \u201cdisaster\u201d for Canada if the sovereigntist party was elected.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon criticized Ford, who for the past two days has been urging Quebecers to reject the PQ for the good of Canada.<\/p>\n

St-Pierre Plamondon said he expected \u201cfear campaigns\u201d and \u201cdefamatory attacks against the party to scare everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a caricatural for the Premier of\u00a0Ontario\u00a0\u2026 and other premiers to arrive on the Quebec political scene to tell Quebecers how to vote in a climate of panic,\u201d said St-Pierre Plamondon, whose party is riding high in the polls ahead of October\u2019s provincial election.<\/p>\n

The issue of unity was central during a meeting of premiers in Ottawa this week, with questions swirling about Quebec and Alberta sovereignty.<\/p>\n

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Ford stood by comments that he first made Wednesday, when he warned \u201cit\u2019d be a disaster for our country if the separatists got elected. It\u2019s as simple as that. We have to be a united Canada right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Other premiers also weighed in, albeit more diplomatically, stressing unity and partnership.<\/p>\n

Ford emphasized Thursday that a unified Canada and Quebec is best for both. Ford said he did not regret using the word \u201cdisaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, they\u2019re separatists, he\u2019s (St-Pierre Plamondon) going to call a referendum, if, God forbid, he gets elected,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cUnacceptable, you\u2019re so much stronger when you\u2019re part of Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

St-Pierre Plamondon, speaking in the Beauce region, south of Quebec City, sarcastically responded to Ford\u2019s comment that he was \u201ctouched\u201d that Ontario\u2019s premier wanted to prioritize Quebec\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n

The PQ leader noted recent history when Ford tried to recruit doctors from Quebec as tense negotiations between doctors groups and the provincial government went off the rails. He also noted Ford\u2019s ill-fated U.S. anti-tariff commercial last fall that drew the ire of the Trump administration and had an impact on Quebec.<\/p>\n

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Ultimately, the PQ leader found Ford\u2019s intervention to be akin to \u201cbad theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would you intervene in Quebec and tell people how to vote and where is that going to lead?\u201d St-Pierre Plamondon said. \u201cAnd are people really in Quebec thinking it\u2019s going to be a catastrophe and a disaster and \u00a0we need to fear the PQ because we\u2019ve been over this so many times in our recent history.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault said it\u2019s up to Quebecers to decide on the province\u2019s future, telling reporters in Ottawa on Thursday that a majority of Quebecers are opposed to separating and an even larger proportion don\u2019t want a sovereignty referendum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the premiers of the various provinces and territories that it wasn\u2019t a good idea (to interfere),\u201d Legault said. Prime Minister Mark Carney also said it will ultimately be up to Quebecers to decide during the same news conference.<\/p>\n

For his part, St-Pierre Plamondon says that a sovereign Quebec would maintain close ties with Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will always have a dialogue about what we have in common and what we can move forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The PQ leader promises to hold a sovereignty referendum by 2030 if he wins the October provincial election.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The leader of the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois and\u00a0Ontario\u00a0Premier Doug Ford traded barbs Thursday after the latter dipped his toe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[103,192,67048,111,168612,79,179061],"class_list":["post-441003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-ontario-politics","tag-politics","tag-quebec-politics","tag-science","tag-sovereignty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}