Quebec election: Legault’s tense relationship with Ottawa likely to now continue

A looming fight over immigration and tensions over the future of the French language in Quebec and across Canada will test intergovernmental relations, experts say.

Francois Legault’s re-election in Quebec Monday night means an already frosty relationship between his government and Ottawa will likely continue, experts say.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated Legault after the Quebec premier’s Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) was projected to form a second majority government, vowing to work together moving forward. But court challenges and a looming fight over immigration are bound to test that promise.

“I don’t think that these tensions will ease as long as the Liberals remain in power in Ottawa and Legault and the CAQ remain in power in Quebec City,” said Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University.

“There are simply fundamental differences between them in the way they see the federation.”

Legault’s first term saw his nationalist agenda clash with Trudeau’s Liberal government a number of times — most notably when the prime minister and members of his cabinet openly criticized Quebec’s secularism law, known as Bill 21, and Bill 96, which bolsters protections for the French language.

Both bills are currently before the courts in Quebec, and Ottawa has promised to join a legal challenge to Bill 21 if it reaches the Supreme Court of Canada.

Legault has also been one of the most vocal premiers calling on Trudeau to increase federal funding for health care, which has been met with resistance by the Liberals. Legault has gone further by insisting that any health transfer top-up must also respect Quebec’s ability to govern its own health-care system without federal interference.

During the 2021 federal election, Legault even went so far as to say then-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole would be easier to work with as prime minister, calling the Liberals, NDP and Greens “dangerous” to nationalist interests.