Canada's Quebec separatist party wins election, Carney government faces new challenge

Quebec voters in Canada have elected a separatist party to power for the first time in more than a decade, straining relations between the province and Prime Minister Mark Carneys federal government and potentially setting the stage for a referendum on Quebec independence. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation declared the Parti Qubcois the winner of the provincial election shortly before 8:40 p.m. Montreal time on Monday. It is not yet certain whether the Parti Qubcois can secure a majority of the 127 seats in the provincial legislature, which would allow it to dominate the agenda without support from smaller parties. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the 49-year-old lawyer who leads the Parti Qubcois, will become the new premier of the French-speaking province. He has promised to hold an independence referendum within his first four-year term, but not before U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office. The unprecedented situation we have just experienced with the United States, and what the Trump administration has done, is unacceptable, and the current environment is not suitable for calmly thinking about our future, Plamondon said in a recent televised debate. This would be the third independence referendum in Quebecs history. In the last referendum in 1995, the Yes vote in favor of sovereignty lost by just over 1 percentage point.