What Canada's Election & A Liberal Minority Gov't Could Mean For Quebec
Will anything fundamentally change?
Now that the dust has settled on the 2021 Federal Election, many of us living in Quebec might be wondering what the point of all this was. But no election is without some kind of meaning, especially for voters.
So, what did this election mean for the people of Quebec and what does a Liberal minority mean for the province?
Thank you, Canada \u2014 for casting your vote, for putting your trust in the Liberal team, for choosing a brighter future. We're going to finish the fight against COVID. And we're going to move Canada forward. For everyone.— Justin Trudeau (@Justin Trudeau) 1632202299
What does a Liberal minority mean for Quebec?
In its platform, the Liberal Party made several promises for the future of Quebec should they win another government.
From child care support to promising to protect the French language, Trudeau made an ambitious series of proposals to get re-elected and for the most part, it worked to get him votes in Quebec.
The electoral map in Quebec, in fact, remains largely unchanged from the previous election.
Of the tangible promises made to Quebec, the Liberals are on the hook for:
- increasing Quebec's pension plan for survivors,
- rehabilitating the Quebec Bridge between Lévis and Quebec City,
- protecting and promoting French both outside and inside the province (including through "an ambitious national strategy to support Francophone immigration outside of Quebec"),
- funding Saint-Jean-Baptiste celebrations,
- protecting the rights and institutions of the English community and,
- exploring a high-frequency rail project between Quebec and Ontario.
It will be interesting to see if these, among the Liberal's other, less tangible promises, will ever come to pass.
Will Legault get anything he wanted for the province?
A month ago, Quebec premier François Legault outlined 10 demands for the province to the leaders of the federal parties.
Increasing federal transfer money for health care and more control over immigrant selection were among his top demands.
"Quebec cannot function in a multiculturalism regime like the rest of Canada," Legault said in a press release.
"We absolutely must integrate immigrants into the francophone majority."
Legault also asked the feds to apply Bill 101 to companies under federal jurisdiction, to leave Bill 21 alone, and to increase federal funding for climate change initiatives.
But there's not much in the Liberal Party platform that is explicitly aligned with Legault's demands.
