{"id":198523,"date":"2026-09-06T21:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T21:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/198523\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T21:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T21:55:13","slug":"quebec-premier-calls-cabinet-meeting-ahead-of-tariffs-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/198523\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec Premier calls cabinet meeting ahead of tariffs \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2013 Quebec Premier Christine Fr\u00e9chette has called a special cabinet meeting for Monday, putting her election campaign on hold one day before Canadian retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods are set to take effect.<\/p>\n

Fr\u00e9chette\u2019s office confirmed Sunday that the cabinet meeting will be held virtually at 6 p.m., but the agenda for cabinet meetings is not disclosed in advance. Such meetings are relatively rare during an election campaign, when Fr\u00e9chette is simultaneously serving as premier and campaigning as CAQ leader.<\/p>\n

The meeting comes as Canada prepares to impose retaliatory tariffs on a wide range of U.S. goods the following day. The tariffs, which will range from 15 to 50 per cent, will apply to products including dairy, steel, copper and some beauty products.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Coalition
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCoalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec Leader Christine Frechette makes a daycare announcement during an election campaign stop in Lorraine, Que., on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. Quebec votes in a provincial election on Oct. 5, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Graham Hughes<\/p>\n

They are in response to U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s 50 per cent tariffs on $28 billion worth of Canadian goods, ranging from hockey sticks to honey.<\/p>\n

Rhetoric over the looming tariffs continued through the long weekend, with Trump posting on social media Sunday that the Canadian dollar\u2019s exchange rate with the U.S. has been \u201cunacceptable \u2026 for years \u2014 but no longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump did not elaborate on his concerns, though the weaker Canadian dollar makes Canadian exports cheaper in the U.S. and American goods more expensive for Canadians.<\/p>\n

Several of Fr\u00e9chette\u2019s political opponents accused her Sunday of using the tariff dispute for political gain during the provincial election campaign.<\/p>\n

Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard accused Fr\u00e9chette of putting on \u201ca play\u201d by calling her ministers together on the eve of the tariffs taking effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have a news conference, flags, long faces, people lined up around a table telling us they\u2019re there for Quebecers and that they\u2019ll do everything they can to save Quebec,\u201d Milliard said during a campaign stop in Gatineau.<\/p>\n

He argued the CAQ government has failed to prepare Quebec businesses for the tariff war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis government has been there for eight years, not eight weeks,\u201d Milliard said. \u201cSo to be told now that we\u2019re going to be there for Quebecers, we\u2019re going to be there for workers, we\u2019re going to hand out this cheque and that tax credit, I find that astonishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quebec Conservative Leader \u00c9ric Duhaime also criticized the decision to convene cabinet, remarking on it during a campaign stop in Pont-Rouge, about 40 kilometres west of Quebec City.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all understand this is a CAQ marketing operation that is trying to exploit the tariff crisis to hide its record,\u201d Duhaime said.<\/p>\n

Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said in a written statement that \u201cfear is not an economic strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He accused Fr\u00e9chette of using \u201cthe Trump bogeyman\u201d in recent days in the hope that voters will look away from the CAQ\u2019s record and the other parties\u2019 proposals.<\/p>\n

Speaking later in Montmagny, about 80 kilometres east of Quebec City, St-Pierre Plamondon said that strategy should not be \u201can excuse not to campaign and to lack transparency with Quebecers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also called on Prime Minister Mark Carney to directly keep all Quebec party leaders informed of developments in the event of further U.S. retaliation.<\/p>\n

Qu\u00e9bec solidaire co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal acknowledged that Fr\u00e9chette remains premier and is holding the meeting in that capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m asking her is: what is she proposing when it comes to tariffs for workers?\u201d Ghazal said after a campaign announcement outside the legislature in Quebec City.<\/p>\n

The cabinet meeting comes as Ottawa is also preparing for the latest escalation in the trade dispute.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the federal government briefed its advisory committee on Canada-U.S. economic relations about the looming tariffs and planned support for workers and businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The meeting included a briefing from Canada\u2019s chief U.S. trade negotiator, Janice Charette, as well as ministers in charge of finance, industrial policy and U.S. trade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sign<\/p>\n

\u201cThe discussion also highlighted the importance of a unified Team Canada approach, with governments, industry, labour and other partners working together to ensure Canada\u2019s response reflects national priorities and promotes long-term economic growth,\u201d reads a Sept. 4 news release.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fr\u00e9chette is not the first political leader to temporarily step away from an election campaign because of the tariff dispute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the 2025 federal election, Prime Minister Mark Carney paused his campaign three times to resume his official duties as the federal government prepared its response to the trade war with the United States.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u2014 With files from Dylan Robertson in Ottawa and Thomas Laberge in Gatineau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2013 Quebec Premier Christine Fr\u00e9chette has called a special cabinet meeting for Monday, putting her election campaign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-198523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198523","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=198523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}