Bloc keeping its focus on Quebecers, Blanchet says

BQ leader says he's in no hurry to topple Liberals after NDP broke deal

- ALEX BALLINGALL, RAISA PATEL, ALTHIA RAJ, TONDA MACCHARLES AND MARK RAMZY

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said he hopes to use his party's new-found potential influence to press for what he sees as gains for Quebec. The first priority will be to seek support for a private member's bill that seeks to increase pension payments for seniors aged 65 to 74.

If they think it’s good for Quebec, then it’s good enough for the Bloc Québécois. And Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government could survive another day.

Or not.

That, in essence, is how the nationalist Quebec party is approaching the new reality in federal politics, one in which — if the smiles and ready laughter of the 32 MPs at this riverside resort on Tuesday were any indication — the Bloc sees a chance to wrest some desired policies out of Trudeau’s suddenly vulnerable minority government.

Less than a week after the NDP tore up the parliamentary alliance that was propping up the Liberal regime, Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet emerged from strategic meetings with his caucus to stand flanked by his grinning colleagues beneath a leafy arbour. Positioning himself as Quebec’s chief defender in a federal Parliament otherwise indifferent to his province’s interests, Blanchet said he has no desire to prolong Trudeau’s hold on power, but that he also doesn’t intend to help Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre become prime minister by immediately toppling the government.