Trudeau congratulates Legault on Quebec election win, promises to work together

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated Francois Legault on his party’s re-election in Quebec Monday, adding he looks forward to working together on “issues of importance to Quebecers and all Canadians.”

“Together, we will make Quebec, which we are so proud of, an even better place to live,” the prime minister said in a statement.

Global News has projected Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec would form a second majority government, increasing its seats in the national assembly from 2018.

Trudeau named climate change, the cost of living and labour shortages among the issues he looked forward to collaborating on with Legault.

Yet the issues that dominated the campaign and Quebec’s relationship with Ottawa under Legault — immigration, French language protections and health-care funding — were not mentioned in the statement.

Quebec and Ottawa saw a sometimes-tense relationship during Legault’s first term, with the two governments coming to blows over Quebec’s secularism and French-language protection laws.

Both bills — Bill 21 and Bill 96, respectively — are before the courts in Quebec, but the federal Liberals have vowed to join a legal challenge of Bill 21 if it were to reach the Supreme Court of Canada.

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Legault has also pushed Ottawa for increased health-care funding and more immigration powers, which have both been rejected by Trudeau.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford was among the first to congratulate “my friend” Legault on his win, promising to continue building “deeper ties between our two provinces.”

The two premiers have led the charge against Trudeau on securing more health-care funding and have been aligned on many other issues, including the economy.

Fellow right-leaning premiers Scott Moe of Saskatchewan and Heather Stefanson of Manitoba also sent their congratulations to Legault.