Quebecers Love the High-Speed Train Their Separatist Leader Wants to Kill

Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s criticism of the federal government’s proposed high-speed rail project generated no shortage of headlines last week in Quebec media.

The Alto line would link Quebec City and Toronto, with stops in Trois-Rivières, Laval, Montreal, Ottawa, and Peterborough. Reaching speeds of more than 300 kilometres per hour, the trains would cut the trip from Montreal to Toronto to about three hours, while travel between Montreal and Quebec City would take roughly ninety minutes.

St-Pierre Plamondon was unconvinced. “We can neither afford nor have any interest in paying for a train that could cost as much as 200 billion dollars,” he posted on X, “the primary purpose of which is to satisfy the federal Liberal government’s desire for ‘nation building’ and to strengthen Canadian unity.” The $200 billion figure does not come from Alto or the federal government. It originates solely with the math skills of Bloc Québécois member of Parliament Jean-Denis Garon, who claimed the official estimate of $60 billion to $90 billion significantly understates its final price tag.

The PQ leader argued the money would be better spent on Quebec’s aging infrastructure. His remark caught many by surprise. Mayors along the proposed route endorsed the rail link as a rare chance to boost regional economies and modernize one of the country’s busiest economic corridors. Even Quebec premier Christine Fréchette, leader of the governing nationalist Coalition Avenir Québec, accused the PQ of “turning its back” on Quebec City, as reported by the Canadian Press.

As the debate unfolded, I happened to be finalizing the questionnaire for a new Quebec survey conducted by Pallas Data commissioned by 338Canada. Given the timing, I added a simple question: “Based on what you have read or heard, are you favourable or unfavourable to the federal government’s high-speed rail project between Quebec City and Toronto?”

The results suggest St-Pierre Plamondon’s position puts him squarely in a minority. The survey, conducted from June 10 to 12 among a random sample of 1,099 Quebec voters, finds that nearly two-thirds of respondents (65 percent) support the project, including 42 percent who are “very favourable.”

If support for the project remains as strong as this poll suggests, opposition to the Alto project could become a political liability for the PQ and a test of whether sovereignty-first politics still aligns with the priorities of Quebec voters.

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Only 24 percent of respondents oppose the project, including 14 percent who are “very unfavourable,” while 11 percent remain undecided.

Of course, with any project of this magnitude, the devil lies in the details. The final route has yet to be determined, and while its cost will run into the tens of billions, the ultimate sum remains uncertain. With megaprojects, overruns are the rule rather than the exception.

Nevertheless, one conclusion is clear: the numbers are not close. Quebecers are in favour. Supporters outnumber opponents by forty-one percentage points. That is statistically—and politically—significant.

The most interesting findings emerge along partisan lines. Strong majorities of CAQ, Liberal, and Québec solidaire voters support the federal government’s high-speed rail project.

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A plurality of PQ voters (46 percent) support the project, compared with 40 percent who oppose it. The PQ leader’s position therefore appears to rest more on personal conviction than on a clear consensus within his own electoral base. Even among supporters of the Conservative Party of Quebec—often perceived as more skeptical of major public transit projects—opposition falls short of a majority. Nearly four in ten Conservative voters (39 percent) support the project, compared with 47 percent who oppose it.

In other words, no major partisan electorate in Quebec is overwhelmingly hostile to high-speed rail.

The demographic results tell essentially the same story. Whether broken down by region, age, or even language, support for the project remains firmly in majority territory.

In both the Greater Montreal area and the Quebec City region, 67 percent of respondents say they support the project. Even in the rest of Quebec, where enthusiasm may have been perceived as more subdued, nearly six in ten respondents (59 percent) support it, against only 28 percent who oppose it.

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Support gradually decreases with age—from 72 percent among those aged eighteen to thirty-four to 57 percent among those sixty-five and older—but remains in the majority across all age brackets. This is a major boon for governments hoping to get major projects underway.

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Finally, the results are virtually identical among francophones (65 percent) and non-francophones (64 percent), where majorities support the Alto proposal. No two solitudes here.

As summer approaches—with its BBQs, vacations, and Quebec’s traditional épluchettes (or corn roasts)—St-Pierre Plamondon’s comments about high-speed rail may fade from the headlines. Yet the PQ leader has stated that his government would withdraw from the project if elected next fall. Given the level of public support in this survey, it is a safe bet the debate is far from over—especially if economic development becomes a central issue in the campaign.

St-Pierre Plamondon may not want “Canadian nation-building projects” in the province he hopes to lead to independence, but his stance on the Alto line could complicate a more immediate objective: winning power. The PQ remains the favourite, but with both the Liberals and the CAQ gaining ground and enthusiasm for another referendum weak, St-Pierre Plamondon enters the fall campaign with far less room for error than he enjoyed a year ago.

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This Pallas Data poll was conducted from June 10 to 12, 2026, among a random sample of 1,099 Quebec respondents aged eighteen and older. Data was collected via interactive voice response using telephone calls to landlines and cellphones. The poll was commissioned by 338Canada. The margin of error for the full sample is ±3 percent, nineteen times out of twenty.