PQ leader says it’s time to relaunch debate on sovereignty after Legault resignation

PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon says François Legault’s resignation proves Quebec cannot gain autonomy within Canada and renews the case for sovereignty.

The leader of the Parti Québécois says it’s time to refocus the political debate in Quebec to sovereignty following what he described as Premier François Legault’s failure to chart a positive path for the province within Canada.

Legault, who announced his resignation on Wednesday, failed to secure gains for Quebec in his more than seven years in office, proving that the Québécois nation cannot be autonomous within Canada, says PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.

In co-founding the Coalition Avenir Québec in 2011, Legault had promised Quebecers a third route — an alternative to the traditional sovereigntist-federalist dichotomy. Legault’s party would be a coalition of sovereigntists and federalists, focusing on strengthening the Québécois identity and economy, and taking the prospect of a referendum off the table.

“There is no third way possible in Canada,” St-Pierre Plamondon told reporters in Quebec City on Friday. “It’s either the status quo with the decline that comes with it, or independence — that’s the legacy. That will be François Legault’s legacy.”

Facing dismal polls, Legault said he would resign once his party chooses a new leader, acknowledging Quebecers want a change of premier.

St-Pierre Plamondon says Legault’s record in office shows the CAQ’s approach — come to be known in Quebec as the “third way” — has failed to yield the necessary improvements for Quebecers. He said Legault’s battles with the federal government for more powers over immigration and increased health transfers yielded “total failure.”

Demands for a single tax return administered by the province and for Ottawa to abstain from court challenges to the CAQ’s secularism law — which bans some public servants from wearing religious symbols on the job — have also been rejected, he said.

“If François Legault wanted to demonstrate the need to put the sovereignty debate on hold, well, he has ultimately demonstrated the necessity of this debate,” St-Pierre Plamondon said. “The fact that this debate on sovereignty is indeed a question of the survival of the nation is the only logical conclusion to be drawn from these demands, all of which have been refused.”