{"id":169381,"date":"2026-08-15T19:12:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/169381\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T19:12:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:12:37","slug":"libman-pq-leaders-open-letter-to-anglophones-is-hardly-reassuring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/169381\/","title":{"rendered":"Libman: PQ leader\u2019s open letter to anglophones is hardly reassuring"},"content":{"rendered":"

A political charade is one way to describe the piece in the National Post this week identified as \u201can open letter written by Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon to Quebec\u2019s English-speaking population.<\/a>\u201d <\/p>\n

St-Pierre Plamondon starts off by gushing about how \u201cwe share something fundamental: a deep attachment to this nation.\u201d Besides anglophones, it\u2019s unclear whether the \u201cwe\u201d he refers to are PQ members, sovereignists or francophones. Published in the National Post, his use of the term \u201cnation\u201d is also somewhat odd, as most readers would take it to mean Canada, while he undoubtedly meant the \u201cQuebec nation.\u201d <\/p>\n

The initial thrust of St-Pierre Plamondon\u2019s appeal is to remind us about how badly things have gone over the past eight years under the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec government and how both linguistic communities share many of the same concerns. <\/p>\n

He outlines the CAQ\u2019s failures in many sectors, saying we deserve high-quality public services and individual financial well-being. His claim, however, that \u201cmany anglo Quebecers have told me they would vote for the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois for the first time in their lives, simply because they agree with our stances on a vast majority of issues,\u201d seems difficult to believe. What are their stances or solutions on these issues if they were to form the government in October? Their entire policy platform, the Livre bleu<\/a>, is underpinned by the need to separate from the supposed suffocating grip of the Canadian federation. Notwithstanding the flimsy economic arguments in the Livre bleu, how will they govern in the interim while preparing the terrain for the divisive referendum that they\u2019ve promised<\/a>? If elected, will they constantly disagree or squabble with Ottawa to better justify an eventual Yes vote, thus unleashing even more instability during these volatile geopolitical times?<\/p>\n

Also of note in the piece is that St-Pierre Plamondon chooses to ignore the Quebec Liberals, the typical refuge for anglo voters, focusing his criticism solely on the outgoing CAQ government \u2014 perhaps trying to cosy up, knowing how the community feels about the CAQ after eight years of its language and identity politics and legislation. That\u2019s pretty audacious, though, considering that many of those harmful CAQ initiatives were deemed by the PQ as not having gone far enough.<\/p>\n

St-Pierre Plamondon promises in the piece that \u201cthe country of Quebec that we are building is one where the rights of the historic English-speaking minority will be fully protected. Its institutions will continue to exist.\u201d What does \u201cfully protected\u201d mean? Will he renounce any override clause in our charters of rights? His generosity, allowing our well-renowned institutions to continue to exist, is also quite touching. <\/p>\n

Some contend that Quebec separation would give francophones a greater sense of security about their language to the point that the government could ease up on certain restrictions affecting the anglophone community. This, I believe, is terribly naive.<\/p>\n

Geography doesn\u2019t change. Quebec will always be surrounded in a predominantly English-speaking North American continent. The ever-intensifying presence of English through business, streaming, social media and other digital platforms will not disappear with Quebec independence. These continued pressures could lead to governments grasping for excuses and potentially clamping down further in the need to fight back against English.<\/p>\n

The PQ is still leading in the latest polls<\/a>, but its vote is potentially fluid. To win, it must consolidate the francophone vote, and this op-ed in the National Post may be more about lulling the rest of Canada into a false sense of security with the possibility of a referendum looming, and a reassurance for francophones here that the perception of potential disunity and upheaval if they elect the PQ will be limited.<\/p>\n

St-Pierre Plamondon sums up with: \u201cThe real ballot question this upcoming October is who can form a good government for Quebec: a competent government, an honest government, a government prepared to tell the truth about the challenges we face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anglophones aren\u2019t naive<\/a>. Smoke and mirrors will not have us overlook the consequences on our community of the dismantling of the Canadian federation that the PQ proposes. All Quebecers should be wary.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n

x.com\/robertlibman<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Profile<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tRobert Libman is an architect and planning consultant who has served as Equality Party leader and MNA, mayor of C\u00f4te-St-Luc and a member of the Montreal executive committee.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A political charade is one way to describe the piece in the National Post this week identified as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,11575,129],"class_list":["post-169381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-parti-quebecois-pq","tag-quebec-elections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}