Last week, Ottawa exhaled when about 75 per cent of Albertans voted to stay in Canada and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith promised there would be no second try.
asserted
Smith → exhale → Canada
Separatism had been tested and found wanting.
asserted
Separatism → test → ?
This week, the federal government hosts the Canada-European Union summit in Montreal.
asserted
government → host → Montreal
It has told Quebec’s premier, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, that he won’t be speaking, or hosting a reception of his own.
asserted
he → tell → own
Picture a couple still living under one roof, where there’s been talk of separation and one of them clearly wants out.
asserted
one → picture → them
Important friends are coming from overseas and the one who sent the invitations tells the other: you can come, but no toast and no party of your own.
asserted
you → come → own
Every Quebecer understands
Told he can’t speak at a summit in his own province, PSPP, as everyone calls the premier, answered with an image every Quebecer understands.
His long post didn’t open with trade figures.
asserted
post → understand → figures
It opened with a film: ”Le Temps des bouffons,” Pierre Falardeau’s scathing short documentary about a Beaver Club banquet in the 1980s, where Montreal’s moneyed establishment dressed up as fur-trade barons.
asserted
establishment → open → barons
In Falardeau’s telling, French Canadians are the ones carrying water on their own land.
asserted
Canadians → carry → land
Most of English Canada has never heard of the film.
asserted
Most → hear → film
Then came the punchline: Ottawa, PSPP wrote, seems to think that permission to serve shrimp cocktail at a reception counts as influence.
asserted
permission → come → influence
PSPP knows what this summons.
asserted
this → know → what
For generations, the French Canadian at the elite’s dinner was the waiter at the private club, the help at the boss’s party, or the clerk told to speak white.
asserted
Canadian → tell → white
Quebec remembers that picture and considers it long settled.
asserted
it → remember → picture
That is a movement that knows exactly what it’s doing.
asserted
it → know → what
It won’t pass up a single chance to turn a slight from Ottawa into something that revives Quebecers’ old feeling of being diminished.
asserted
that → pass → feeling
Prime Minister Mark Carney says the premier was invited to the dinner and declined and that this is a federal summit.
asserted
this → say → dinner
By the time you read this, Ottawa may have relented.
uncertain
Ottawa → read → this
I doubt it.
asserted
I → doubt → it
Carney is more likely applying what he learned dealing with Donald Trump.
asserted
he → apply → Trump
If you give him what he wants, he’ll bully you for more.
asserted
he → give → more
However, with Trump, saying no denies him what he wants.
asserted
he → say → what
With PSPP, saying no is what he wants.
asserted
he → say → what
It’s worth noting that the request for a Quebec reception wasn’t PSPP’s.
asserted
request → ’ → reception
It came on Sept. 15 from Christine Fréchette’s CAQ, a party that kept telling Quebecers the federation could work for them.
uncertain
federation → come → them
Nor does Industry Minister Mélanie Joly help by insisting that geopolitics is federal jurisdiction.
asserted
geopolitics → help → ?
The summit is mostly about trade, which reaches deep into provincial territory.
asserted
which → reach → territory
Quebec had its own negotiator at the CETA talks.
asserted
Quebec → have → talks
It has to be the harder, more honest case: that a Quebec
PSPP should prove he can govern
It would be tempting, in Ottawa, to file Quebec next to Alberta.
asserted
It → have → Alberta
PSPP has pledged no referendum while Trump is in office.
asserted
Trump → pledge → office
He won the election, but nearly three voters in four chose someone else.
asserted
voters → win → someone
One would expect him to spend the start of his minority mandate proving he can govern.
asserted
he → expect → mandate
He seems determined to show he can govern while also preparing a referendum.
asserted
he → seem → referendum
Rather than put sovereignty on the back burner, the pledge buys time to keep it on the front one and every slight from Ottawa turns up the heat.
asserted
slight → put → heat
Still, the PQ has a problem.
asserted
PQ → have → problem
To grow support for sovereignty, it believes it needs Quebecers to feel slighted.
asserted
Quebecers → grow → sovereignty
But most of them like Carney and a premier who picks fights too early risks being tuned out
asserted
who → pick → fights
But Quebecers’ affection for federal Liberals has always been conditional and it has evaporated before.
asserted
it → evaporate → Liberals
Ottawa shouldn’t make the next one easier.
asserted
one → make → ?
The Aporia
