U.S. President Donald Trump has congratulated the leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ) for winning the provincial election, three weeks after the fact. The president shared a post about the Oct. 5 election result on his social networking site, Truth Social, on Tuesday morning. “Congratulations to Paul St. Pierre Plamondon on his WIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” the post says. He shared the post along with a news article from irishtimes.com published the day after the election with the headline “Separatists win Quebec provincial election in blow to Mark Carney.” The article reported that the election results in Quebec could pose a challenge to Prime Minister Mark Carney “to maintain national unity against Trump,” in reference to St-Pierre Plamondon’s promise to hold a referendum on Quebec’s sovereignty. Quebec’s new premier has said a referendum would not be held until Trump leaves office, in January 2029. A referendum on Quebec’s independence, however, remains considerably unpopular, according to public opinion polling in the months ahead of the provincial election. Polls showed only about 30 per cent of voters supported a third referendum in Quebec. St-Pierre Plamondon won the election with 1,200,369 votes, or 28 per cent support of the vote. After winning a judicial recount in Vachon, the PQ holds 60 seats in the Quebec legislature, falling four seats short of the 64 needed for a majority government.
