Just weeks into the job, Quebec’s premier clashes with Carney over EU summit seat - Toronto Star

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon says he wants a place at the negotiating table, not the dinner table.

Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, seen at a Montreal press conference on Oct. 23, 2026, called Quebec’s absence from Canada-EU negotiations “a grave lack of respect.”

OTTAWA — Well, that didn’t take long.

Days before a high-profile Canada-European Union summit, Quebec’s new Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon fired a broadside at Prime Minister Mark Carney over what he cast as a condescending denial of his right to represent Quebec’s interests at the Montreal talks.

Carney told reporters he did not bar the Quebec premier from the summit: “He was invited to dinner. He refused.”

St-Pierre Plamondon portrayed that invitation as an insulting exclusion from a negotiating table where, according to EU officials, Canada and the EU are discussing possible associate EU membership for Canada. Canadian officials prefer the term a new “alliance for the future.”

European officials briefing reporters Tuesday said to expect agreements on digital trade, critical minerals investment, energy development and antitrust measures, along with new efforts to tackle foreign misinformation and to share Europe’s supercomputing resources, as well as pledges to expand labour and student mobility, research co-operation and more.

The Quebec premier said Carney’s denial of an opportunity for him to address the two-day summit, on Quebec soil, is a direct challenge to Quebec sovereignty.

It was more than half a century ago, but there are many modern echoes in the twists and turns of this earlier attempt at securing our economy.