If there is one thing that Donald Trump imitates wonderfully in his meetings, it is Emmanuel Macron’s French accent when he speaks English. His intimacy with the language of Molière stops at this single performance. This does not prevent him from becoming, five weeks before the Quebec vote, one of the key figures in the electoral campaign.
The American president even discovered a passion for the French-speaking world across the Atlantic. With this cry from the heart uttered on his Truth Social network: “I love French Canadians! » according to an expression often used, rather clumsily, by Americans to refer to Quebecers (de Gaulle was speaking frankly of “Canadian French”). On Thursday, Trump took the provocation a little further by signing an executive order ordering administrations to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America”. One more fantasy, almost farcical, in this very real crisis. Trade negotiations between Washington and Ottawa, already tense, ended up coming to an end. The United States hit $20 billion worth of Canadian goods with tariffs of up to 50%. Quebec, very exposed in aluminum and metallurgy, is on the front line. To this endless standoff was added another subject, perhaps even more crucial: French.
The language issue
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney swears that the Americans demanded, in the final hours of the discussions, concessions relating to the protection of the French language and culture. Quebec imposes labeling rules in particular and wants to force platforms like Netflix or Spotify to promote French-speaking content more. For Washington, these linguistic guarantees are nothing more and nothing less than trade barriers. Folklore to harm the interests of Uncle Sam. In the middle of the campaign for the provincial elections, which will renew the National Assembly, Christine Fréchette, head of the Quebec government for four months, immediately jumped at the opportunity to pose as guardian of French: “Our culture, our language are at the heart of our identity. »
At the White House, however, they tell a completely different story. The Americans dispute the Canadian version. Jamieson Greer, the American Trade Representative, who himself speaks French quite well, assures that the language has never constituted a casus belli, recognizing however that the obligations imposed on American platforms, as well as the rules on labeling, were discussed “flexibly”. The quarrel is not imaginary but the presentation of an America hostile to the French language in Quebec is politically advantageous. In La Belle Province, French is the condition of existence of Quebec, a French-speaking island surrounded on all sides by an English-speaking ocean. Trump, obviously, did not miss the opportunity. “I will never interfere with Canadians who speak French!” » he protested, accusing Carney of having fabricated this story to collect votes in Quebec.
Mark Carney as self-proclaimed champion of French
Fréchette, leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), did not choose Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ) – in favor of independence – as his main opponent, despite leading the polls. The outgoing Prime Minister nominated Trump. “He is the real adversary, he is the one who truly threatens Quebec”she said at the launch of her campaign. And to immediately pose as captain in the pricing storm.
A tailor-made story
Electoral Canada Dry is served: it looks like a campaign against Trump, it tastes like one, but the sworn enemy remains the Parti Québécois. The CAQ, an autonomist (but not independence) party in power since 2018, enters the campaign already well damaged by the wear and tear of the years and the accumulated discontent, in recent months in particular, over the cost of living. The American scarecrow suddenly offers Fréchette a tailor-made story like these Angela Merkel costumes that she loves so much. Simply put: the world is dangerous, America is unpredictable, and now is definitely not the time to talk about independence.
The trade war and the recurring fantasy of a Canada reduced to becoming the “51st State” have given rise to Canadian patriotism where it was no longer expected: among some French-speaking Quebecers, and even more clearly among the English-speakers of the province. Why leave today a federation of 40 million inhabitants to find yourself alone facing an American power nine times more populated and led by a president who threatens industries with customs duties?
St-Pierre Plamondon smelled the trap. “PSPP”as the Quebec press commonly abbreviates it, has chosen to postpone any referendum beyond Trump’s departure from the White House. We will therefore have to wait until at least January 2029. For the first time, the calendar for Quebec independence finds itself suspended from American deadlines. The federalists seized the opportunity. This postponement is an admission, they rejoice. Nothing less! If the sovereignists are waiting for Trump to return to his Mar-a-Lago retreat, then Ottawa is serving a purpose! Canada, shield in spite of itself. Fréchette uses the manager’s argument: Quebec does not need a party mobilized for a referendum, it needs a government ” full time “. To hear the PQ’s opponents, the ballots should almost include a name to cross out: Trump!
The linguistic dispute between Quebec and Ottawa, however, does not date from Trump. Bill 101 has already been overturned twice by the Supreme Court of Canada: in 1984 on access to English schools, then in 1988 on commercial signage exclusively in French. Two blows to this emblematic text of Quebec from within the federation itself. This is the whole sovereignist argument against “Canadian shield” : how can we present Ottawa as protector of French when certain linguistic conflicts come precisely from English-speaking Canada? Hence this strange campaign, with Carney as a self-proclaimed champion of French, even though he is the linguistic laughing stock of the country – even in his own camp – and sovereignists who are postponing their popular consultation project until later. Thirty-one years after the 1995 referendum (lost by a handful of votes, 50.6% against 49.4%), the national question had to return through the door of Quebec. She returns, improbably, via Washington.
