Jacques Parizeau and François Legault in a Parti Québécois promo

The Parti Québécois (PQ) presents its portrait of the finances of a sovereign Quebec with… François Legault.

In a video published on social networks, the PQ promotes its Monday announcement next on what is commonly called the “year 1 budget”, using extracts from a presentation by François Legault in 2005.

“It is not only relevant today 'today, the sovereignty project, but it has become urgent,' he declared.

He was then still a PQ MP and presented his portrait of the finances of a sovereign Quebec, an exercise that he had carried out himself. This was well before he resigned in 2009 and founded the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) in 2011.

In the explanations that follow, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon takes the trouble to emphasize, not without irony, that it entirely adopts François Legault's calculation method.

 

He adds, however, that in a second step, his updated document will go further: it will reveal “political choices” that would make a PQ government, without specifying them, which would have a “substantial influence on the finances of a free Quebec.”

Also, among the selected extracts, note that we go back to 1973, when Jacques Parizeau, who was not yet a member of parliament at the time, also produced a projection on the finances of a possible sovereign Quebec.

“A real budget for an independent Quebec balances, it even balances very well,” he argued in a television presentation. We are capable of transforming a lot of things. »

Recall that Mr. Parizeau later became leader of the PQ, prime minister and came within a whisker of achieving independence during the 1995 referendum.

The video also includes headlines where liberal prime ministers Jean Charest and Philippe Couillard, but also more recently the CAQ François Legault, recognized that a sovereign Quebec would be “viable” economically.

Figures have already started to circulate in the media concerning the presentation of next Monday's document.

Also read

• Quebec would inherit 200 billion in federal debt if it declared its independence
• Year one's budget, “not a priority” for Quebecers, says Legault
• St- Pierre Plamondon draws the outlines of a Quebec army and motto
• The PQ and QS clash over independence

The PQ analysis estimates the savings to be made at $8 billion due to the end of duplication and overlap with the federal government.

In the House, Prime Minister François Legault raised the specter of job losses in speaking of $8 billion that the PQ would “cut”, in the event of an independent Quebec.

Political news has focused a lot on Quebec sovereignty this week. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon was called upon to further define his country project.

He notably suggested that he was in favor of an independent Quebec minting its own currency and that he advocated a sovereignty-association with Canada.