PREMIUM CONTENT

Click to subscribe

BECOME A MEMBER

Monthly Annual

Rebel News +

Our most popular subscription

• View RebelNews.com without ads
• Includes 1 free week of RebelNews+
• Access all RebelNews+ shows
• Access Comments and RN+ features

$8

Per month CAD

Join RebelNews+ Now

Producers Club

Our top supporters

• View RebelNews.com without ads
• Includes 1 free week of RebelNews+
• Access all RebelNews+ shows
• Access Comments and RN+ features
• Invites to producers club only events
• Special discount at RebelNewsStore.com
• Free gifts for members, like signed books

$22

Per month CAD

Join Producers Club Now

Article by Rebel News staff.

Tonight on The Ezra Levant Show: Alberta's referendum set off its loudest echo in Quebec City, where two very different Quebecs showed up in the National Assembly this week, one reaching out to Alberta on immigration and provincial power, the other waving a keffiyeh and telling the new Premier that if he does not spend, the cities could burn.

Albertans voted 75 per cent to stay in Canada on Oct. 19, a result Prime Minister Mark Carney said left him "thrilled." The other nine questions were about immigration, judges, the Senate and who holds power, Ottawa or the province. On the preliminary count, voters backed more provincial control over immigration at 54 per cent, restricting welfare for newcomers at 58 per cent, fees for temporary residents who use hospitals and schools at 57 per cent and proof of citizenship to vote at 63 per cent. Yes also led on picking Alberta's own judges and abolishing the Senate. The question on opting out of federal programs with compensation fell short, and the one on giving provincial laws priority over federal laws was too close to call, at about 50.6 per cent Yes to 49.4 per cent No. Premier Danielle Smith promised to use "every legal and political tool at our disposal" and said Albertans had "directed the provincial government to take greater control over immigration."

The loudest cheer came from Quebec. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, whose Parti Québécois won 59 seats and a minority on Oct. 5, issued a long statement on Tuesday, the day before he was sworn in as Premier. "Canada, as it is, does not work. And the status quo is no longer acceptable," it began. He called the federation a "carcan," a straitjacket, said Albertans "like Quebecers before them, are challenging the Canadian constitutional order," and promised that "the new government of Quebec will make sure the message is understood in Ottawa." He thanked Albertans for proving "there is nothing to fear in expressing yourself by referendum." His party plans one for 2029.

Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime, whose party went from zero seats four years ago to 19 this month, called Alberta's vote "a unique opportunity to build bridges" and spoke of "bargaining power together." He promised a motion recognizing the result when the Assembly sits and offered to broker a meeting between Smith and the new Premier. He tied the cause to immigration, the subject of five of Alberta's nine questions, arguing provinces should be able to refuse if Carney raises numbers back to Trudeau-era levels. The two men dislike each other, and St-Pierre Plamondon has accused Duhaime of "contempt" for Quebec's interests, but on this they stand together.

Quebec's leaders also say out loud what Alberta only hinted at on a ballot. At a town hall hosted by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in April, St-Pierre Plamondon said Muslim Brotherhood ideology is documented across Europe and that "the only reason it isn't documented in Canada is that it's the agenda of the government in place." Liberals Jean-Yves Duclos and Marc Miller called the remark a "conspiracy theory" and "ridiculous." During the campaign he stood in front of a Quebec City high school with 24 portable classrooms, blamed the overcrowding on immigration and said "that's not racist." He proposes capping permanent immigration at 35,000 and halving temporary immigration. His party voted for Bill 9, which ends street prayers and bans religious symbols on daycare workers. Duhaime's immigration plan would award points to immigrants from democracies and says Quebec has "the right to demand that those who join us at least minimally share our values." Between them, the two parties won 78 of 125 seats.

Then there is the other Quebec. On Tuesday, Québec solidaire's nine members were sworn in, and Leader Ruba Ghazal, born in Lebanon to Palestinian refugees, grabbed a keffiyeh and waved it over her head, dancing. "I am 100 per cent Québécoise and 100 per cent Palestinian. I have two nations," she told reporters. Her speech turned to France, where riots gutted the 143-year-old city hall in Limoges and police counted 30,000 rioters in Marseille alone. "This anger of the young must alert us in Quebec," she said, adding: "To prevent violence in our society, we must invest." Le Devoir reported that she declined repeated requests to condemn the violence before allowing that "of course we don't want things burning everywhere." Read plainly, the message to the new Premier was to spend more or risk the same.

The arithmetic gives that choice weight. St-Pierre Plamondon has 59 seats and needs 63 for a majority. The Liberals, with 40, have ruled out co-operating on a referendum. That leaves Duhaime's 19 or Québec solidaire's nine, led by a woman who said last year, "I hadn't thought of Albertans as a people." The argument for Albertans is that they now have the most important ally they have had in 50 years, one who speaks another language, wants to leave the country and will never campaign for them, and that they should take the meeting anyway.