‘Allons diviser et conquérir’. Direct translation: ‘Let’s divide and conquer’.Especially if it gets votes.In a rare show of deference to Canada’s — and Quebec’s — Anglo population, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Quebec Premier François Legault of "attacking" English speaking Canadians to prop up his sagging provincial government.It comes as the Liberals face a by-election test in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun where 91 candidates have registered to create the longest ballot in Canadian history. Based on proportions of previous by-elections, the ballot is about 30 centimetres — one foot — wide and more than a metre — 38 inches — long.A total of 79 candidates are linked to the Longest Ballot Committee, a group protesting Canada’s first-past-the-post voting system..One of the overwhelming themes in the race is the sense that the Liberals have failed to protect the rights of the English-speaking minority on issues like requiring healthcare providers to speak exclusively in French and restricting access to English schools.“First of all, I understand that feeling,” Trudeau told local radio station CJAD. “They see a government in Quebec City, the Legault government, that has decided the best way to protect French — which is something that I agree with, yes, we need to protect French — but Legault has decided the best way to protect French is to attack English Canadians. And that doesn’t make any sense.”In July, the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s Bill 96 required all government workers, including those in hospitals and nursing homes, use French “systematically” in written and oral communications with their clients, with few exceptions.Earlier this spring, mainly English universities like McGill and Concordia were required by law to impose big tuition hikes on out-of-province students and change the funding formula for international students..Both have since filed lawsuits against the government for its so-called ‘tuition reform’ policies on the grounds that they discriminate against non-French speaking students.In the interview, Trudeau called the policies “just wrong.”“The idea that someone’s going into a hospital for a test or something, anxious they might have cancer or anxious they might be sick, and is going to have to be worried about whether or not they can get treated in English because their French isn’t that strong? That’s just wrong,” Trudeau said.But that in turn drew angry rebuttals on Twitter (“X”) with one user calling the PM a “liar” for suggesting Quebec is discriminating against English speakers.It comes as Legault struggles with plummeting approvals ratings. After routinely hitting 77% approval during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he has become the second-least popular premier in the country at 32% in March, according to an Angus Reid poll.That’s just one per cent above Blaine Higgs of New Brunswick at 31% and two points lower than Ontario’s Doug Ford at 34%.
