Aug 27 (Reuters) – Quebec will hold an election on October 5, with polls showing that the next government is likely to be formed by separatists who want independence for the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province — but not while U.S. President Donald Trump is in office.
Premier Christine Frechette, who leads the right-of-center Coalition Avenir Quebec government, made the announcement on Thursday at a press conference to begin her campaign for re-election. Under Quebec’s fixed-date election law, October 5 is the latest day a province-wide vote can be held.
The CAQ first came to power in 2018 and won reelection in 2022 but is trailing the separatist Parti Quebecois amid voter fatigue and anger over high living costs and a struggling medical system.
The PQ, set to take power for the first time in more than a decade, have long promised to hold another referendum on splitting from Canada.
But last week, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said that if he won power, the party would not call a referendum until Trump leaves office, in 2029. Quebec has been one of the hardest-hit provinces amid the deepening trade war with the U.S. and Trump is more disliked there than elsewhere in Canada.
Two previous independence votes, in 1980 and 1995, both failed and a series of polls over the last two years show a solid majority are against the idea of breaking away from Canada.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Maria Cheng; Editing by Mark Porter)
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