Yves-François Blanchet is leading the Bloc Québécois into a federal election for the third time, as the province – often a political wildcard – is expected to be a closely fought battleground.
The Quebec sovereigntist party only runs candidates in the French-speaking province, and it has in the past formed official opposition in the House of Commons.
The 59-year-old Blanchet became leader of the Bloc in 2019, but first got involved in politics in the 1980s as a member of the youth committee of the provincial Parti Québécois.
In 2008, he was elected to Quebec’s national assembly, becoming environment minister with the provincial party.
Blanchet was born and raised in Quebec. He attended the Université de Montréal, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in history and anthropology.
After finishing school, Blanchet worked as a teacher and later led a music non-profit in Montreal.
The year Blanchet was elected leader, the Bloc increased the number of seats it had in Parliament, overtaking the New Democrats to become the party with the third-most seats in the House of Commons.
Quebec voters – and the province’s 78 federal ridings – have in the past dramatically affected election outcomes in Canada.
The Bloc’s mandate is to be a voice for Quebec in Ottawa.
Among the big issues in Quebec right now is the global trade war launched by US President Donald Trump. The province is home to North America’s largest primary aluminium production sector.
Trump has put steep tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium, which has already caused one Quebec aluminium plant – Alubar – to shut down its operations and layoff all 70 of its workers.
Blanchet has called the tariffs “ill-advised,” and said that he believes “at the end of the day, the voice of reason will prevail”
He has also come out fiercely against President Donald Trump’s musings about making Canada a 51st US state.
“It’s enough jibber-jabber,” Blanchet said during an address on Trump’s tariffs earlier this month in Montreal. “We can say whatever we want, but that doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want.”
In responding to these emerging challenges from the US, Blanchet has not strayed away from putting Quebec front and centre in the conversation.
His party recently ran advertisements that asked: “Who will speak for Quebec?”
“We must prevent Quebec from becoming Canada’s bargaining chip, speaking primarily for Toronto’s banks, Ontario’s auto industry, and Western oil companies,” the advertisement read. “On the contrary, Quebec must emerge stronger.”
The province has long fiercely defended its identity, and in 2006, the House of Commons recognised that the “Québécois form a nation within a united Canada”.
Since then, it has passed legislation defending its secularism laws and protecting use of the French language.
But threats from the US appear to have deeply worried Quebeckers, who have grown less supportive of Quebec sovereignty since Trump’s “51st state” rhetoric.
Those numbers have not deterred Blanchet, however, who said he believes the appetite for Quebec independence will “come roaring back” once US-Canada relations stabilise again.