The Japan Times - Separatists win Quebec election in test for Canada PM

Public broadcaster CBC and private outlets predicted the Parti Quebecois will form the next government in Canada's French-speaking province, but it was not yet clear if they will control a legislative majority.

Carney is popular in Quebec, and the success of the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) did not mark a repudiation of his stance toward Trump, whose trade war and annexation threats have infuriated Canadians.

Instead, the PQ's rise after more than a decade in opposition has been tied to frustration over affordability and an enduring desire to protect the French language in an increasingly anglophone country.

Jubilant separatist supporters erupted in cheers and song at an election night party in Montreal.

"We have the right in a democracy to pose the question (to leave Canada)," 26-year-old oil worker Felix Marineau told AFP, before the result was called as promising results trickled in.

"For me, to be against (an independence) referendum is being against democracy."

- Independence after Trump? -

The PQ victory makes its leader Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon, a 49-year-old lawyer known by his initials as PSPP, Quebec's next premier.

He has maintained he will call a referendum on leaving Canada if elected, just not while Trump is in office.

He has said a decision on Quebec's independence "requires conditions that allow for an informed and calm debate."

That shouldn't be "hijacked by the theatrics of an unpredictable president," he added, ruling out a referendum until at least 2029.

First-time voter Alexia Gomez, 19, invoked the "preoccupying" relationship between the United States and Canada when she told AFP she opposed an independence referendum.

"If Quebec becomes independent it would make us politically, economically and militarily vulnerable," she said.

Quebec has held two previous votes on leaving Canada. Federalists won comfortably in 1980, but the 1995 result was excruciatingly close, with just 50.58 percent voting to stay in Canada.

For Carney, the Quebec result comes amid a fraught political season.

His Liberal government enjoys broad support, and many Canadians credit him with leading national, and at times international, opposition to Trump.

But in addition to the separatist triumph in Quebec, voters in the oil-rich province of Alberta will hold a non-binding vote this month on whether they want independence.

- 'Abolish the monarchy?' -

PSPP may not have majority backing for an independent Quebec, but his plans to target the British monarchy appear far more popular.

Canada is part of the British Commonwealth. King Charles III, Canada's head of state, is represented in Ottawa by the governor general. Lieutenant governors represent the monarchy in the provinces, including Quebec.

In a 2025 Leger poll, 87 percent of Quebecers said they felt no attachment to the British monarchy, and only 31 percent expressed a favorable view of King Charles.

"There is nothing preventing (Quebec's) National Assembly from acting as a sovereign parliament and passing a law that abolishes the activities of the lieutenant governor and no longer allocates a budget to this masquerade that wastes money," said PSPP.

He has proposed reallocating the lieutenant governor's budget to combat homelessness.

Pasquale Zgambatte, an 80-year-old Montreal voter, told AFP he doesn't support another independence referendum, but wanted British royals out of Canadian life.

"If we're a country, Canada, then we have nothing to do with England," he said.

K.Yoshida--JT