Mark Carney defuses tensions with Quebec premier before facing Xi, Putin and Trump at APEC

详细摘要

If international summits are all about showing up for valuable face time with other leaders, this year’s Francophonie and Asia-Pacific summits show the upsides, and the potential…

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — If international summits are all about showing up for valuable face time with other leaders, this year’s Francophonie and Asia-Pacific summits show the upsides, and the potential downsides, for Mark Carney.

His meetings in China are still a day away, but the prime minister appeared to score a significant win when he met in Cambodia with the newly elected premier of Quebec.

At a gathering of French-language nations and subnational governments, separatist Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon emerged Sunday from his first face-to-face meeting with the prime minister declaring that, despite their public sparring in recent weeks, he was delighted with a conversation he described as “fun,” constructive and respectful.

The premier told reporters six times that he and Carney exchanged phone numbers, calling it “a good sign,” and toned down some of his sharpest rhetoric against Ottawa. This from a premier who has antagonized Carney since taking office in early October.

Plamondon was unapologetic about his demands for a greater say in Canada-U.S. trade negotiations and more power to set temporary immigration levels, saying not all of his disputes with Carney could be resolved in an initial meeting that ran past its allotted half-hour and lasted 47 minutes.

And Plamondon claimed victories, saying Carney agreed to provide more transparency and to consult with Quebec in the Canada-U.S. trade talks. Asked whether he agreed it was Carney’s job to negotiate the terms of any deal, Plamondon turned aside the question: “What we agreed upon is that we needed immediate and enhanced communication among our staff and between each other.” He touted as victories the fact that Carney supported his proposed 2027 francophone business leaders’ summit in Quebec, and agreed Quebec will decide how homelessness and housing funding will be spent. Plamondon said he “regretted nothing” about his advocacy for Quebec’s interests.

Yet from the perspective of the prime minister, those…

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