With the next provincial election now less than two years away, François Legault's Coalition Avenir Québec party appears to be taking a stronger federalist stance.
The party held a convention in Drummondville this weekend emphasizing a more federalist stance — though it remains a conditional one.
"We don't want to separate Quebec from the rest of Canada," Legault told CJAD 800's Natasha Hall on Monday. "The only thing that we'd like to have is to get additional powers, and we understand it will take many years before getting all powers we would like to have, but in the short term, the one [thing] that is important for us is to get all the choice of new immigrants with the Quebec government."
Currently, Legault says, Quebec is in control of choosing only 70 per cent of new arrivals, while the federal government chooses the rest.
For Legault, it's about preserving Quebec's language — and more importantly, Quebec's values.
"We welcome then very well, but we'd like that they accept our values, including equality between men and women," he says. "It's key that we make sure that these people accept our values and agree with our values."
Meanwhile, over the weekend, Legault didn't entirely reject recent comparisons to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump — which had been levelled on him by the Liberals.
"I don’t like his style, I don’t like to exaggerate, [I don’t like] simplistic populism," said Legault. "On the other hand, we must be close to the concerns of the people and aware of the parties that have always been in power and tainted by corruption."