Latest news with #Quebecer
CTV News
5 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Quebecer wins part of $70M Lotto Max jackpot
One lucky Quebecer won part of the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot that was drawn on July 11. Loto-Quebec says it is planning to hold a press conference at its headquarters in Montreal on Wednesday at 11:15 a.m. to present the winner to the public. There is no word yet on exactly how much money the fortunate Quebecer is taking home. This story will be updated.
Montreal Gazette
6 days ago
- Sport
- Montreal Gazette
Montreal infielder Otto Lopez shows he belongs in Major League Baseball
Two Quebecers started the season in Major League Baseball. Otto Lopez is still there, but Édouard Julien has been sent down to Triple-A, while Abraham Toro has made a remarkable comeback. Where do Quebecers stand in high-level professional baseball? Here's a brief all-star break overview (all stats compiled from and through July 14) before the dog days of summer begin: Otto Lopez, Miami Marlins Lopez remains the top Quebecer in MLB. Despite a 10-day stint on the injured list, the Miami Marlins infielder has played in 80 (77 starts) of the team's 95 games. While his batting average is slightly lower than last year (.250 vs. .270), his on-base and slugging percentages are both higher at .320 and .392, respectively. Lopez, who was born in the Dominican Republic before moving to Montreal at age 12, has played more often at shortstop than at second base this season (47 times vs. 32). He is providing offence, with 11 home runs, 48 RBIs — already personal bests — and 41 runs scored, and is on pace to set career highs in hits and runs this season. He is also very reliable defensively, as evidenced by his .988 fielding percentage at shortstop and .986 at second base, both above the MLB average at those positions (.978 and .985, respectively). Abraham Toro, Boston Red Sox Toro had an excellent spring training camp with the Boston Red Sox. It didn't go unnoticed. His excellent start to the season in Triple-A Worcester forced the Red Sox to call him up in early May, when first-baseman Tristan Casas went down for the season with a torn knee ligament. The switch-hitting infielder and hitter has given the Red Sox no choice but to keep him with the big club since then. The Longueuil native is on track for his best season statistically and boasts a .271/.321/.418 slash line. In 52 games, including 44 as a starter at first and third base, he has racked up 48 hits, including 11 doubles and five home runs. He has driven in 20 runs and has 25 runs scored. With Alex Bregman at third base and Casas returning next year, Toro's future in Boston is uncertain. However, he is proving that he can help a team. Édouard Julien, Minnesota Twins Injuries to infield regulars gave Julien the opportunity to start the 2025 season in the majors. Unfortunately, the Quebec City native was unable to seize the opportunity. His stint with the Minnesota Twins lasted only 29 games this season, during which he failed to prove that he belonged among the 26 best players on his team. His .198/.288/.319 slash line was clearly insufficient. In 91 at-bats, he struck out as many times (29) as he reached base, with 18 hits and 11 walks. Julien, who finished seventh in the American League Rookie of the Year voting in 2023, regained some confidence at the Triple-A level after a very difficult start. While his average had dropped below .200 on June 3, he just had a good six-week stretch at the plate, posting averages of .266/.410/.447. Julien also has nine home runs, 28 RBIs and 28 runs scored. While these numbers may not be enough to bring him back to Minneapolis, they could offer him a new opportunity elsewhere in MLB. Miguel Cienfuegos, San Diego Padres The Laval native started the season in the San Diego Padres' farm system at the Double-A level, where he won both of his decisions and posted an excellent 1.13 ERA in six games. He was promoted to Triple-A in May. Used primarily as a reliever, the left-hander has had some difficult moments and is 0-2 with a 5.47 ERA. A closer look at his statistics reveals that four bad outings among his 13 appearances inflated his statistics. In particular, he gave up eight runs, including six earned, to the Albuquerque Isotopes in three innings of work in his second start on July 2. Cienfuegos, who played in independent baseball — notably with the Capitales de Québec in the Frontier League — before returning to affiliated baseball, is considered an old prospect at age 28. It remains to be seen if he can turn things around and earn a spot in San Diego. Charles Leblanc, free agent After playing in only 11 games with the Los Angeles Angels in 2024, Leblanc signed a minor-league contract with the Atlanta Braves. The Laval native had a good training camp, but was assigned to Triple-A, where he hit .291 with an on-base percentage of .394 in 22 games. But he only had two extra-base hits and his slugging percentage was just .316. Add to that only eight RBIs, and the Braves released him in early June. This story was originally published July 15, 2025 at 2:43 PM.
Edmonton Journal
04-07-2025
- Business
- Edmonton Journal
'Happy coincidence' or master plan: How Carney's team full of Quebecers wants to govern Canada
Article content While some believe Carney has an electoral debt to pay to Quebec, Harder said it's important to look broadly at the key players in a government as a collective. 'Public service is a team sport,' he said. Article content National Post spoke with more than a dozen sources for this article to gain insight into Carney's new team, with a focus on the Quebec angle. Sabia did not comment for this story. Several suggested that the influx of senior officials from that province is largely a coincidence, that they got their jobs simply because of experience and talent. Article content If so, it's a happy coincidence for Carney, a prime minister who grew up mostly in Edmonton, has spent much of his career in Ottawa, and speaks French as a second language. But some academics and other Ottawa insiders suggest that the prime minister is well aware that his connections to Quebec are fragile. Article content Article content 'Quebec is important,' said a source in the prime minister's office that spoke on background. 'The prime minister is not from Quebec, and it is important that he have this perspective. Quebec has its own culture, its own identity, and its own language.' Article content The key question centres on the possible effects of this Quebec-heavy contingent in the Carney government, both in terms of policy and politics. Will it help, for example, earn support for pipelines or ports that require Quebec to be on board? Article content Or could it mean new models or ways of looking at these major projects, such as the use of pension funds as a financial tool? Article content Either way, the Quebec element in the Carney government is, perhaps surprisingly, a marked change from the previous regime. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau, despite being a bilingual Quebecer, was often criticized because people from his home province held a limited number of the top jobs in his government. Article content Article content And so far, no matter the ingredients in the recipe or the motivations behind the government plan, it's clearly working. Carney is widely seen as the most popular politician in Quebec, despite his limited connections to the province. A recent Léger Poll placed him and Joly as the two most popular politicians in Quebec. Article content One of his first moves was to hire the Ontario-born Sabia, one of the best-known and most-respected business leaders in Quebec, to lead the government's swelling public service. Article content When Sabia was appointed head of the CDPQ in 2008, former business journalist Pierre Duhamel, who now advises business people at HEC Montréal, didn't like the hire. Like many other Quebecers at the time, Duhamel was unconvinced by the idea of appointing a 'Canadian' executive with a telecom background to lead Quebec's financial rock. Article content Article content A few years later, Duhamel described Sabia's tenure at such a complex institution as 'remarkable.' After a difficult period in the 2000s, Sabia diversified investments, globalized the Caisse, and launched CDPQ Infra, an infrastructure arm that oversees major infrastructure projects such as Montreal's light rail network, and enabled the pension fund to achieve strong performance. Article content 'But what I admire most are Mr. Sabia's management skills and political acumen,' he wrote in L'Actualité. Article content The Caisse is a public pension fund that has been enshrined in Quebec's economy, culture and politics since 1965. Today, it has 11 offices around the world and $473 billion in assets. Article content The Caisse is also the most recent employer of Carney's new chief of staff, Blanchard, who was a vice-president and head of CDPQ Global. Article content Duhamel said during an interview that he suspected that the two men had not been recruited because of their connections to Quebec, but rather to help facilitate new infrastructure projects that Carney would like to help finance through pension funds or private investors. Article content 'I saw that he was looking for people who knew this world, who were able to assess its potential, but also its constraints,' he said. Article content Sabia has said recently at a public event, however, that the major pension funds — Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the CDPQ — are likely not the best candidates to help finance most infrastructure projects because they can be too risky for pension funds and are unlikely to deliver strong returns in the early years. Article content Article content Instead, early-stage capital mechanisms that aren't as risk averse need to be developed to get these projects started. Pension funds are more likely to get involved once a project is off the ground and producing returns. Article content Since pension funds are responsible for investing in ways that generate returns for their beneficiaries, which often means investing outside Canada, Trevor Tombe, a economics professor at the University of Calgary, believes they 'should not be seen as a vehicle for economic development.' Article content Quebec has a dual mandate within its public pension plan, he added, but the Canada Pension Plan is different. Article content 'Whether or not the prime minister wants the CPP to invest more in Canada, he can't do it unilaterally,' he added. 'But I think he should ask himself what the underlying reasons are for why capital is sometimes deployed elsewhere.' Article content Article content It all depends on the economic context in the country. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre recently told The Hub that he couldn't care less about the origins of Carney's aides, but said he fears the ideology of what he sees as a state-run economy. Article content 'It's a central planning model that has failed every time it's been implemented around the world. It significantly enriches a small group of very influential insiders.' Article content Another possible policy implication from the strong Quebec voices is that the proposed high-speed rail project from Windsor to Quebec City could get stronger support. It could also mean greater advocacy for the province's energy sector, government procurement that could bolster Montreal-area aerospace companies, and prioritizing the health of the aluminum industry in trade talks with the U.S. Article content For Sandra Aubé, Joly's former chief of staff at Foreign Affairs and a former Trudeau advisor, if Carney really wants to make Canada the G7's strongest economy, he has no choice but to create a more unified economy that includes Quebec. Article content 'We must not delude ourselves that Canada's biggest challenge in achieving all this is having energy. If we don't have the necessary electricity, for example, we won't be able to carry out any transformation whatsoever,' said Aubé, now a vice-president at TACT Conseil. Article content Another possible effect is that the high-ranking Quebecers may also be asked to play a unique role in advancing the government's agenda if the government needs to 'sell' the notion of some of the government's proposed big infrastructure projects in that province, according to Lori Turnbull, a political science professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Article content The odds of success regarding, for example, running a pipeline through Quebec are greater if high-profile Quebecers are playing a leading role in promoting the idea, she said. Article content Beyond the policy, there are also no doubt political implications of the strong Quebec voice in the Carney government, a wide range of sources say. Article content Article content Firstly, many in Quebec expect that these senior figures, in conjunction with a Quebec caucus of 44 Liberal MPs — more than one quarter of the total Liberal contingent in the House of Commons — will be able to take good care of their home province over the next few years. Article content Quebec Premier Francois Legault stated the case clearly. 'Mark Carney owes one to Quebecers,' he said after the Liberals claimed their best result in a federal election there since 1980. Article content But the flip side, that Carney expects these Quebecers to also help execute the government's agenda in their home province, is likely also true. Article content Beyond who will be best able to deliver for whom, there's also the intangible sense of understanding a part of a country or region. In an interview, Legault's intergovernmental affairs minister Simon Jolin-Barrette said in Carney's government 'there really is a positive change in attitude' and an 'openness toward Quebec' that wasn't always the case with the Trudeau government. Article content Article content Both in Quebec City and Ottawa, there is, at least for now, a feeling that having people from Quebec around the prime minister who know the province, its particularities and positions on language, culture, state secularism and immigration will facilitate a relationship that has often been rocky. Article content The province wants Ottawa to understand its sense of autonomy, but also the need for investments in the province that 'Quebec has its share,' said Jolin-Barrette. 'We sense a greater openness. There is an openness in Ottawa. There is a better understanding of Quebec's issues now, with Mr. Carney.' Article content Turnbull said Carney is clearly trying to show that Quebec is not at a disadvantage because he's from elsewhere. Article content 'There's some politics behind those parts of it,' she said. Article content The Joly and Champagne appointments may have in part been rewards for supporting Carney during the Liberal leadership race, Turnbull said, when either could have been legitimate candidates themselves.
Calgary Herald
04-07-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
'Happy coincidence' or master plan: How Carney's team full of Quebecers wants to govern Canada
Article content While some believe Carney has an electoral debt to pay to Quebec, Harder said it's important to look broadly at the key players in a government as a collective. 'Public service is a team sport,' he said. Article content National Post spoke with more than a dozen sources for this article to gain insight into Carney's new team, with a focus on the Quebec angle. Sabia did not comment for this story. Several suggested that the influx of senior officials from that province is largely a coincidence, that they got their jobs simply because of experience and talent. Article content If so, it's a happy coincidence for Carney, a prime minister who grew up mostly in Edmonton, has spent much of his career in Ottawa, and speaks French as a second language. But some academics and other Ottawa insiders suggest that the prime minister is well aware that his connections to Quebec are fragile. Article content Article content 'Quebec is important,' said a source in the prime minister's office that spoke on background. 'The prime minister is not from Quebec, and it is important that he have this perspective. Quebec has its own culture, its own identity, and its own language.' Article content The key question centres on the possible effects of this Quebec-heavy contingent in the Carney government, both in terms of policy and politics. Will it help, for example, earn support for pipelines or ports that require Quebec to be on board? Article content Or could it mean new models or ways of looking at these major projects, such as the use of pension funds as a financial tool? Article content Either way, the Quebec element in the Carney government is, perhaps surprisingly, a marked change from the previous regime. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau, despite being a bilingual Quebecer, was often criticized because people from his home province held a limited number of the top jobs in his government. Article content Article content And so far, no matter the ingredients in the recipe or the motivations behind the government plan, it's clearly working. Carney is widely seen as the most popular politician in Quebec, despite his limited connections to the province. A recent Léger Poll placed him and Joly as the two most popular politicians in Quebec. Article content One of his first moves was to hire the Ontario-born Sabia, one of the best-known and most-respected business leaders in Quebec, to lead the government's swelling public service. Article content When Sabia was appointed head of the CDPQ in 2008, former business journalist Pierre Duhamel, who now advises business people at HEC Montréal, didn't like the hire. Like many other Quebecers at the time, Duhamel was unconvinced by the idea of appointing a 'Canadian' executive with a telecom background to lead Quebec's financial rock. Article content A few years later, Duhamel described Sabia's tenure at such a complex institution as 'remarkable.' After a difficult period in the 2000s, Sabia diversified investments, globalized the Caisse, and launched CDPQ Infra, an infrastructure arm that oversees major infrastructure projects such as Montreal's light rail network, and enabled the pension fund to achieve strong performance. Article content 'But what I admire most are Mr. Sabia's management skills and political acumen,' he wrote in L'Actualité. Article content The Caisse is a public pension fund that has been enshrined in Quebec's economy, culture and politics since 1965. Today, it has 11 offices around the world and $473 billion in assets. Article content The Caisse is also the most recent employer of Carney's new chief of staff, Blanchard, who was a vice-president and head of CDPQ Global. Article content Duhamel said during an interview that he suspected that the two men had not been recruited because of their connections to Quebec, but rather to help facilitate new infrastructure projects that Carney would like to help finance through pension funds or private investors. Article content 'I saw that he was looking for people who knew this world, who were able to assess its potential, but also its constraints,' he said. Article content Sabia has said recently at a public event, however, that the major pension funds — Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the CDPQ — are likely not the best candidates to help finance most infrastructure projects because they can be too risky for pension funds and are unlikely to deliver strong returns in the early years. Article content Article content Instead, early-stage capital mechanisms that aren't as risk averse need to be developed to get these projects started. Pension funds are more likely to get involved once a project is off the ground and producing returns. Article content Since pension funds are responsible for investing in ways that generate returns for their beneficiaries, which often means investing outside Canada, Trevor Tombe, a economics professor at the University of Calgary, believes they 'should not be seen as a vehicle for economic development.' Article content Quebec has a dual mandate within its public pension plan, he added, but the Canada Pension Plan is different. Article content 'Whether or not the prime minister wants the CPP to invest more in Canada, he can't do it unilaterally,' he added. 'But I think he should ask himself what the underlying reasons are for why capital is sometimes deployed elsewhere.' Article content Article content It all depends on the economic context in the country. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre recently told The Hub that he couldn't care less about the origins of Carney's aides, but said he fears the ideology of what he sees as a state-run economy. Article content 'It's a central planning model that has failed every time it's been implemented around the world. It significantly enriches a small group of very influential insiders.' Article content Another possible policy implication from the strong Quebec voices is that the proposed high-speed rail project from Windsor to Quebec City could get stronger support. It could also mean greater advocacy for the province's energy sector, government procurement that could bolster Montreal-area aerospace companies, and prioritizing the health of the aluminum industry in trade talks with the U.S. Article content For Sandra Aubé, Joly's former chief of staff at Foreign Affairs and a former Trudeau advisor, if Carney really wants to make Canada the G7's strongest economy, he has no choice but to create a more unified economy that includes Quebec. Article content 'We must not delude ourselves that Canada's biggest challenge in achieving all this is having energy. If we don't have the necessary electricity, for example, we won't be able to carry out any transformation whatsoever,' said Aubé, now a vice-president at TACT Conseil. Article content Another possible effect is that the high-ranking Quebecers may also be asked to play a unique role in advancing the government's agenda if the government needs to 'sell' the notion of some of the government's proposed big infrastructure projects in that province, according to Lori Turnbull, a political science professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Article content Beyond the policy, there are also no doubt political implications of the strong Quebec voice in the Carney government, a wide range of sources say. Article content Article content Firstly, many in Quebec expect that these senior figures, in conjunction with a Quebec caucus of 44 Liberal MPs — more than one quarter of the total Liberal contingent in the House of Commons — will be able to take good care of their home province over the next few years. Article content Quebec Premier Francois Legault stated the case clearly. 'Mark Carney owes one to Quebecers,' he said after the Liberals claimed their best result in a federal election there since 1980. Article content But the flip side, that Carney expects these Quebecers to also help execute the government's agenda in their home province, is likely also true. Article content Beyond who will be best able to deliver for whom, there's also the intangible sense of understanding a part of a country or region. In an interview, Legault's intergovernmental affairs minister Simon Jolin-Barrette said in Carney's government 'there really is a positive change in attitude' and an 'openness toward Quebec' that wasn't always the case with the Trudeau government. Article content Article content Both in Quebec City and Ottawa, there is, at least for now, a feeling that having people from Quebec around the prime minister who know the province, its particularities and positions on language, culture, state secularism and immigration will facilitate a relationship that has often been rocky. Article content The province wants Ottawa to understand its sense of autonomy, but also the need for investments in the province that 'Quebec has its share,' said Jolin-Barrette. 'We sense a greater openness. There is an openness in Ottawa. There is a better understanding of Quebec's issues now, with Mr. Carney.' Article content Turnbull said Carney is clearly trying to show that Quebec is not at a disadvantage because he's from elsewhere. Article content 'There's some politics behind those parts of it,' she said. Article content The Joly and Champagne appointments may have in part been rewards for supporting Carney during the Liberal leadership race, Turnbull said, when either could have been legitimate candidates themselves.
Ottawa Citizen
04-07-2025
- Business
- Ottawa Citizen
'Happy coincidence' or master plan: How Carney's team full of Quebecers wants to govern Canada
Article content While some believe Carney has an electoral debt to pay to Quebec, Harder said it's important to look broadly at the key players in a government as a collective. 'Public service is a team sport,' he said. Article content National Post spoke with more than a dozen sources for this article to gain insight into Carney's new team, with a focus on the Quebec angle. Sabia did not comment for this story. Several suggested that the influx of senior officials from that province is largely a coincidence, that they got their jobs simply because of experience and talent. Article content If so, it's a happy coincidence for Carney, a prime minister who grew up mostly in Edmonton, has spent much of his career in Ottawa, and speaks French as a second language. But some academics and other Ottawa insiders suggest that the prime minister is well aware that his connections to Quebec are fragile. Article content Article content 'Quebec is important,' said a source in the prime minister's office that spoke on background. 'The prime minister is not from Quebec, and it is important that he have this perspective. Quebec has its own culture, its own identity, and its own language.' Article content The key question centres on the possible effects of this Quebec-heavy contingent in the Carney government, both in terms of policy and politics. Will it help, for example, earn support for pipelines or ports that require Quebec to be on board? Article content Or could it mean new models or ways of looking at these major projects, such as the use of pension funds as a financial tool? Article content Either way, the Quebec element in the Carney government is, perhaps surprisingly, a marked change from the previous regime. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau, despite being a bilingual Quebecer, was often criticized because people from his home province held a limited number of the top jobs in his government. Article content Article content And so far, no matter the ingredients in the recipe or the motivations behind the government plan, it's clearly working. Carney is widely seen as the most popular politician in Quebec, despite his limited connections to the province. A recent Léger Poll placed him and Joly as the two most popular politicians in Quebec. Article content One of his first moves was to hire the Ontario-born Sabia, one of the best-known and most-respected business leaders in Quebec, to lead the government's swelling public service. Article content When Sabia was appointed head of the CDPQ in 2008, former business journalist Pierre Duhamel, who now advises business people at HEC Montréal, didn't like the hire. Like many other Quebecers at the time, Duhamel was unconvinced by the idea of appointing a 'Canadian' executive with a telecom background to lead Quebec's financial rock. Article content A few years later, Duhamel described Sabia's tenure at such a complex institution as 'remarkable.' After a difficult period in the 2000s, Sabia diversified investments, globalized the Caisse, and launched CDPQ Infra, an infrastructure arm that oversees major infrastructure projects such as Montreal's light rail network, and enabled the pension fund to achieve strong performance. Article content 'But what I admire most are Mr. Sabia's management skills and political acumen,' he wrote in L'Actualité. Article content The Caisse is a public pension fund that has been enshrined in Quebec's economy, culture and politics since 1965. Today, it has 11 offices around the world and $473 billion in assets. Article content The Caisse is also the most recent employer of Carney's new chief of staff, Blanchard, who was a vice-president and head of CDPQ Global. Article content Duhamel said during an interview that he suspected that the two men had not been recruited because of their connections to Quebec, but rather to help facilitate new infrastructure projects that Carney would like to help finance through pension funds or private investors. Article content 'I saw that he was looking for people who knew this world, who were able to assess its potential, but also its constraints,' he said. Article content Sabia has said recently at a public event, however, that the major pension funds — Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the CDPQ — are likely not the best candidates to help finance most infrastructure projects because they can be too risky for pension funds and are unlikely to deliver strong returns in the early years. Article content Article content Instead, early-stage capital mechanisms that aren't as risk averse need to be developed to get these projects started. Pension funds are more likely to get involved once a project is off the ground and producing returns. Article content Since pension funds are responsible for investing in ways that generate returns for their beneficiaries, which often means investing outside Canada, Trevor Tombe, a economics professor at the University of Calgary, believes they 'should not be seen as a vehicle for economic development.' Article content Quebec has a dual mandate within its public pension plan, he added, but the Canada Pension Plan is different. Article content 'Whether or not the prime minister wants the CPP to invest more in Canada, he can't do it unilaterally,' he added. 'But I think he should ask himself what the underlying reasons are for why capital is sometimes deployed elsewhere.' Article content Article content It all depends on the economic context in the country. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre recently told The Hub that he couldn't care less about the origins of Carney's aides, but said he fears the ideology of what he sees as a state-run economy. Article content 'It's a central planning model that has failed every time it's been implemented around the world. It significantly enriches a small group of very influential insiders.' Article content Another possible policy implication from the strong Quebec voices is that the proposed high-speed rail project from Windsor to Quebec City could get stronger support. It could also mean greater advocacy for the province's energy sector, government procurement that could bolster Montreal-area aerospace companies, and prioritizing the health of the aluminum industry in trade talks with the U.S. Article content For Sandra Aubé, Joly's former chief of staff at Foreign Affairs and a former Trudeau advisor, if Carney really wants to make Canada the G7's strongest economy, he has no choice but to create a more unified economy that includes Quebec. Article content 'We must not delude ourselves that Canada's biggest challenge in achieving all this is having energy. If we don't have the necessary electricity, for example, we won't be able to carry out any transformation whatsoever,' said Aubé, now a vice-president at TACT Conseil. Article content Another possible effect is that the high-ranking Quebecers may also be asked to play a unique role in advancing the government's agenda if the government needs to 'sell' the notion of some of the government's proposed big infrastructure projects in that province, according to Lori Turnbull, a political science professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Article content Beyond the policy, there are also no doubt political implications of the strong Quebec voice in the Carney government, a wide range of sources say. Article content Article content Firstly, many in Quebec expect that these senior figures, in conjunction with a Quebec caucus of 44 Liberal MPs — more than one quarter of the total Liberal contingent in the House of Commons — will be able to take good care of their home province over the next few years. Article content Quebec Premier Francois Legault stated the case clearly. 'Mark Carney owes one to Quebecers,' he said after the Liberals claimed their best result in a federal election there since 1980. Article content But the flip side, that Carney expects these Quebecers to also help execute the government's agenda in their home province, is likely also true. Article content Beyond who will be best able to deliver for whom, there's also the intangible sense of understanding a part of a country or region. In an interview, Legault's intergovernmental affairs minister Simon Jolin-Barrette said in Carney's government 'there really is a positive change in attitude' and an 'openness toward Quebec' that wasn't always the case with the Trudeau government. Article content Article content Both in Quebec City and Ottawa, there is, at least for now, a feeling that having people from Quebec around the prime minister who know the province, its particularities and positions on language, culture, state secularism and immigration will facilitate a relationship that has often been rocky. Article content The province wants Ottawa to understand its sense of autonomy, but also the need for investments in the province that 'Quebec has its share,' said Jolin-Barrette. 'We sense a greater openness. There is an openness in Ottawa. There is a better understanding of Quebec's issues now, with Mr. Carney.' Article content Turnbull said Carney is clearly trying to show that Quebec is not at a disadvantage because he's from elsewhere. Article content 'There's some politics behind those parts of it,' she said. Article content The Joly and Champagne appointments may have in part been rewards for supporting Carney during the Liberal leadership race, Turnbull said, when either could have been legitimate candidates themselves.
