QUEBEC — Quebec’s political class Thursday dismissed Toronto’s strategy of waving a possible Quebec referendum around as a way to hurt Montreal’s chances of landing the new multinational defence bank.

“I’m not getting into that,” Premier Christine Fréchette said, arriving for question period at the legislature. “We have everything we need to position ourselves. On top of that, we already have a great number of international organizations (in the city).”

Fréchette said she reminded Prime Minister Mark Carney of all the positives Montreal has when they were together Wednesday for the announcement on the new Airbus order.

The mayor of Montreal, Soraya Martinez Ferrada, qualified the tactic, revealed by La Presse on Thursday, as a form of scare campaign that won’t take root.

“I’m going to base my campaign for the bank of defence on the facts and not fear,” Martinez Ferrada told reporters. “I’m going to leave the fear to other cities — in this case Toronto.

“The fact is, Montreal has an eco-system that has been there for many years, decades. We announced the Airbus planes yesterday. We have the OACI (International Civil Aviation Organization), which has been there for 50 years, and we’ve gone through two referendums.”

“We have exactly what the bank of defence needs, an eco-system that is economy and an eco-system that is diplomacy.”

The two politicians were reacting to a report that the battle between Toronto and Montreal — two of the four cities which could possibly bag the bank — had gone to a new level.

Promoters in Toronto, La Presse said, had gone so far as to tell federal officials the Parti Québécois plan to hold an independence referendum within a first mandate if its takes power should be a motive to exclude Montreal from the running.

Toronto, on the other hand, is playing up it is a place of “political stability,” even mentioning it in promotion material boasting about the qualities of the city.

The other two cities under consideration are Vancouver and Ottawa, which has teamed with Gatineau to make a pitch. It is up to the federal government to make a choice.

Canada learned in April it had been selected to host the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank. The bank’s role is to improve access to financing for companies operating in sectors often viewed as too risky by traditional lenders, particularly those tied to defence and security.

The news of the anti-Quebec campaign came as a surprise to Quebec politicians.

The Coalition Avenir Québec government’s Minister for Canadian Relations, Jean Boulet, said the campaign resembles scare tactics, but was cautious about going further down that line of thinking.

“I won’t get into arguments of this nature,” Boulet told reporters. “I think we need to play up Montreal’s candidacy without using fear.”

The Parti Québécois, however, did not hesitate to say the move is pure scare tactics.

“It’s a fear campaign and hence a false argument,” PQ MNA Pascal Paradis said at his morning news conference. “Each city should be evaluated, assessed by its own merits.”

Paradis refused to concede the prospect of a referendum could be a source of uncertainty despite intense questioning.

“It’s a hypothetical uncertainty which has not been proven,” Paradis said.

But later, at a separate event in Montreal, PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said he didn’t think the premier’s defence of Quebec was strong enough.

“I don’t find it normal that she does not respond to the unacceptable arguments (being used by Toronto), that she does not defend Quebec more,” St-Pierre Plamondon said.

While denouncing Toronto’s tactics, Quebec Liberal Party house leader Marc Tanguay said it is, nevertheless, clear some people will make use of the PQ’s plans to hurt Quebec.

“A referendum, at whatever the cost, and separation, represent economic instability,” Tanguay said. “Don’t be surprised to hear us say this. We have been saying it for years.

“The question has been asked twice in Quebec (history) and two times Quebecers said no. That because Quebecers, in their wisdom, recognize the economic stability that comes from being part of the Canadian federation and remain in favour of the No.”

Jesse Feith of The Gazette contributed to this report.

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