Europe's rearmament an 'extraordinary opportunity' for Quebec, Legault says

Thomas Laberge · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 30, 2025 6:12 PM EDT | Last Updated: 19 minutes ago

Quebec Premier François Legault believes Europe's rearmament presents an "extraordinary opportunity" for his state arsenic it tries to diversify commercialized distant from the United States.

Legault told a gathering successful Hanover, Germany, that Europe plans to walk hundreds of billions of dollars connected defence successful the coming years, arsenic U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled helium whitethorn nary longer beryllium consenting to support Canada oregon the European Union.

The main of the EU's enforcement has projected an 800-billion-euro defence program that aims to lessen the interaction of imaginable U.S. disengagement and enactment Ukraine successful its warfare with Russia.

Legault says respective Quebec sectors could lend to that effort, including shipbuilding, aerospace, captious minerals and artificial intelligence.

Legault is successful Germany until April 2 connected an economical ngo aimed astatine seeking caller partners amid Trump's tariff threats against Canada.

He wrote connected societal media Sunday that Quebec indispensable alteration the interest and choler astir the commercialized warfare into an accidental to redefine and fortify its economy.

In his code to Quebec's delegation to Germany, Legault sent a pointed connection to Trump, who has imposed a 25 per cent work connected Canadian aluminum. Legault noted that Quebec supplies 60 per cent of U.S. aluminum needs.

"Now, Mr. Trump says, 'I don't request you guys'... Personally, it would springiness maine pleasance to instrumentality a bully information of our aluminum and find places, Germany among others, to nonstop it," helium said, adding that would unit Trump to "find aluminum elsewhere."

The president of the province's concern arm, Investissement Québec, acknowledged it would beryllium hard to penetrate the European defence market, but not intolerable fixed the expertise successful the province.

"I deliberation determination is surely an accidental successful defence for Quebec, whether it's astatine the level of helicopters, planes, formation simulators," Hubert Bolduc said.

Legault's travel wraps up Wednesday — the aforesaid time Trump has threatened to enforce a caller barrage of tariffs connected Canadian goods.