French president postpones July visit to N.B.
Macron was to take part in joint meeting of Canadian, French cabinets
French President Emmanuel Macron will not travel to New Brunswick next month as planned.
"The province was notified by the French Consulate earlier this week that the visit has been postponed," said Bruce Macfarlane, a spokesperson for Premier Blaine Higgs's cabinet, in a statement.
A spokesperson for Macron confirmed the delay to Radio-Canada.
"The visit will not take place in July," Marie Tausig said by email.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Macron would visit the province "for the first Canada-France Joint Council of Ministers in order to deepen the bilateral relationship between the two countries and promote shared priorities."
But the makeup of Macron's cabinet could change based on the outcome of legislative elections being held in two rounds on June 30 and July 7.
On
June 6, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Macron would visit New
Brunswick 'for the first Canada-France Joint Council of Ministers in
order to deepen the bilateral relationship between the two countries and
promote shared priorities.' (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Macron called those elections after his party suffered losses in European parliamentary elections.
France's acting consul-general in Moncton said on June 6 that Macron's visit would be to that city.
The idea of a visit by Macron was first raised in 2021 when he named acclaimed Acadian author Antonine Maillet a commander of the French Legion of Honour during a visit to France by an Acadian delegation.
Two French presidents have visited New Brunswick previously. François Mitterrand made a brief stop in the province as part of a Canadian visit in 1987, and Jacques Chirac attended the Francophonie Summit in Moncton in 1999.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Louis Blouin
France's Macron gambles on snap election to keep far right in check
National Rally party, led by Marine Le Pen, made significant gains in weekend election
The posters touting the far right were sometimes hard to spot behind all the bunting and decorations heralding last week's 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in France, which marked a major turning point in the war for the allied nations fighting Nazi Germany.
But they were there, lurking behind the Union Jack, the Stars and Stripes and the Maple Leaf strung along the streets of Normandy's wartime villages: campaign posters for Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN), which emerged victorious on Sunday in European Parliament elections.
The pro-Europe centrist party of French President Emmanuel Macron — who led tributes to the ever-dwindling number of Second World War veterans and solemn ceremonies remembering the soldiers who died in the fight for freedom — won less than half as many votes as the far right.
Even though the mainstream centre-right bloc known as the European People's Party (EPP) held its ground and gained seats, there were significant gains for the far right in both France and Germany — key pillars of the European Union essentially born of the ashes of the Second World War.
National Rally — formerly the National Front, founded by Le Pen's Holocaust-denying father, Jean-Marie Le Pen – won 31.4 per cent of the vote in France, while Macron's coalition took 14.6 per cent.
In Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) beat German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats to second place, with 16 per cent of the European Parliament vote.
Macron's reaction to the results in France — choosing to dissolve the National Assembly and call snap parliamentary elections to conclude in a final ballot on July 7 — has created shockwaves and raised fears that the gamble could backfire.
WATCH | France calls snap election in wake of European Parliament election results:
A time for 'clarification'
In a televised address on Sunday, he said he had made the call in response to "the rise of nationalists and demagogues," which he described as a danger to France's position in Europe and the world.
"Now is the time for clarification," he told Le Figaro newspaper two days later. "Dissolution is the clearest, most radical and strongest gesture. A gesture of great confidence in the French people."
Macron is clearly banking on the fact that voters tend not to pay too much attention to the European Parliament's elections. It is the European Commission, rather than the Parliament, that formulates policy, along with national governments.
Marine
Le Pen, president of the far-right National Rally party parliamentary
group, addresses party members in Paris after a resounding success in
the European Parliament elections on June 9. (Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters)
His clear hope is that voters will balk at the prospect of a far-right government in France.
Critics say he underestimates an electorate that deeply dislikes him; his approval ratings are around 22 per cent, according to newspaper reports. His gamble, they say, risks opening the door to the far right even further.
"Now weaker than ever, Macron is bringing out his philosopher's stone — the one that enabled him to win power and keep it, but which has since lost its effectiveness," wrote journalist Solenn de Royer in Le Monde.
"He is once again framing the situation as a deadly faceoff between populists and progressives, essentially 'me or chaos.' He is betting on transforming the 'all against Macron' into an 'all against the [National Rally.]'"
Bedlam across the political spectrum
The risk of Macron's gamble was further highlighted when Éric Ciotti, the head of The Republicans, France's conservative party, called for an alliance with National Rally. It was the first time a mainstream political party had suggested a partnership with the far right. The suggestion has been met with outrage by Ciotti's own party, which moved to dismiss him.
Parties on the left side of the political spectrum, including the Greens and Jean-Luc Melenchon's far-left France Unbowed, have reportedly made a pledge to act together in the upcoming vote.
Macron has urged moderates on both left and right to find common ground to defeat NR in the upcoming vote.
Le Pen has confirmed that if her party wins a majority in the snap elections, her 28-year-old lieutenant and party president, Jordan Bardella, will be named as prime minister.
Bardella, who embraces the party's anti-immigrant rhetoric and has more than one million TikTok followers, is considered a rising star among RN supporters.
Jordan
Bardella, president of the National Rally party, would be made prime
minister if the party wins a majority in the upcoming French election. (Abdul Saboor/Reuters)
If RN were to win, Macron would be faced with "cohabitation," meaning he would have to share power with a government of his opponents for the remainder of his term as president, due to end in 2027.
If it were with the far right, it would be unprecedented.
In an editorial earlier this week, Le Monde sought to underline just how precarious a position Macron has placed the country in.
"Nothing less than the future of our democracy will be decided, in a hurry, as will the face we wish to present to our European allies and partners, at a time when our continent is once again struck by war and our world is in a stage of climatic catastrophe," wrote director Jérôme Fenoglio.
Concerns about weakened Europe
There are fears a victory for the National Rally would set France on the same path as Hungary, where the increasingly authoritarian policies of populist leader Viktor Orban have eroded democratic institutions, including an independent judiciary and a free press.
Across the channel from France, the editorial board of the Guardian newspaper in the U.K. also weighed in, reminding Macron of the dangers inherent in grand gestures.
"As David Cameron discovered after pledging a Brexit referendum, following stellar European results for Nigel Farage's Ukip in 2014, bold gambits can deliver very nasty surprises," the editorial said.
WATCH | About That: Is Macron's election call a calculated risk?
Marine Le Pen, who is positioning herself to run for president in 2027, no longer says she wants to take France out of the European Union, part of her attempts to soften National Rally's image.
But critics say the desire to weaken the bloc from within is still there, along with a populist appeal still reliant on the xenophobia that characterised RN's earlier incarnations.
Le Pen's support for Russia is another reason alarm bells should be ringing, says historian Timothy Garton Ash, an author and professor of European studies at Oxford University.
"You see [their] posters everywhere, most of which are tangentially pro-Russian," he said in an interview in Normandy last week.
"They say we want peace, by which they mean 'make a deal with [Russia's Vladimir] Putin.' And most of them also like [former U.S. president Donald] Trump."
Garton Ash, whose own father landed with British troops on Normandy's beaches on D-Day, said commemorations held to mark the 80th anniversary risk losing their meaning if people fail to connect the past with the present.
"Only if we can make the connection to the war that's happening right now and to the nationalisms we're facing right now — some would say the fascism we're facing right now — is it valuable."
He said that's especially true for the younger generation, "[who] don't realize that this wonderful Europe we've created, which is relatively free and prosperous and peaceful … could easily be under serious threat."
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Macron gambles rest of his presidency by calling French legislative elections
Macron could be ceding domestic agenda until 2027 if National Rally sustain momentum from weekend vote
France's finance minister said on Monday that the snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron after a bruising loss to the far right in European Parliament elections would be the most consequential legislative vote in the republic's history.
Macron's shock decision amounts to a roll of the dice on his political future. It could hand a great deal of power to Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) after years on the sidelines, and neuter his presidency three years before it is due to end.
The legislative vote will take place on June 30, less than a month before the start of the Paris Olympics, with a second round on July 7.
"This will be the most consequential parliamentary election for France and for the French in the history of the Fifth Republic," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told RTL radio.
Helmed by 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, the RN won about 32 per cent of the vote on Sunday, more than double the Macron ticket's 15 per cent, according to exit polls. The Socialists came within a whisker of Macron at 14 per cent.
"In the next few days, I'll be saying what I think is the right direction for the nation. I've heard your message, your concerns, and I won't leave them unanswered," said Macron.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, a Socialist, said "a dissolution just before the Games, it's really something that is extremely unsettling," in comments reported by France 24. The Paris Olympics begin on July 26.
Element of surprise
Analysts said Macron's decision aimed to make the best of his weak position, reclaiming the initiative and forcing RN into election mode faster than it would have liked.
Some RN leaders appeared to have been caught off guard.
"We didn't think it would be immediately after the European elections, even if we wanted it to be," RN deputy chairman Sebastien Chenu said on RTL Radio.
French
far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) party president
Jordan Bardella addresses supporters on Sunday at the Pavillon Chesnaie
du Roy in Paris. The 28-year-old could be the country's next prime
minister, influencing the country's domestic agenda. (Julien De Rosa/AFP/Getty Images)
Bardella will be the party's candidate for prime minister, Chenu said.
The result is hard to predict. The outcome is likely to depend on how committed leftist and centre-right voters are to the idea of blocking the far right from power. Voter turnout on Sunday was about 52 per cent, the interior ministry said.
If the RN wins a majority, Macron would still remain as president and direct defence and foreign policy. But he would lose the power to set the domestic agenda, from economic policy to security.
Among policies put forward by the party, the RN has proposed higher public spending, despite already significant levels of French debt, threatening to further raise funding costs at banks.
It also wants to expel more migrants, stop family reunification, restrict child-care benefits to French citizens, give French nationals preference in access to social housing and jobs, and withdraw residency for migrants that are out of work for more than a year.
Macron's Renaissance party currently has 169 lower house lawmakers out of a total of 577. The RN has 88.
Eurasia Group said the RN was no shoo-in for a majority, predicting a hung parliament as the most likely scenario.
"Faced with another hung parliament, [Macron] will try to form a wider alliance with the centre-right or centre-left, possibly by appointing a prime minister from one of those camps," it said in a note.
"We foresee a losing struggle for serious domestic reform or strict deficit reduction in the remaining three years of Macron's term."
The euro fell 0.5 per cent in early European trade, while Paris blue-chip stocks dropped two per cent, led by steep losses in banks BNP Paribas and Societe Generale.
Students
shout, with one holding a homemade sign reading 'Jordan get out of
there,' in reference to French politician Jordan Bardella, during a
demonstration to protest against the rise of far-right parties, in front
of the Henri IV high school on Monday in Paris. (Julien De Rosa/AFP/Getty Images)
French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Moncton in July
Visit has been in the works since 2021 but premier links to tourism minister’s pricey European trip last fall
Premier Blaine Higgs is suggesting that a controversial European trip by his tourism minister last fall helped convince the president of France to visit New Brunswick.
Higgs appeared to confirm in the legislature Thursday that Emmanuel Macron will visit the province — a trip that has been the subject of speculation for three years, but that had not been officially announced.
Later in the day France's ambassador to Canada, Michel Miraillet, who was attending a D-Day ceremony in Moncton, confirmed to Radio-Canada that Macron will visit the city in July.
Higgs was defending Tourism Minister Tammy Scott-Wallace's trip to England and France last September when he disclosed the Macron trip.
Scott-Wallace's travel generated controversy over her deputy minister's large expense claim, which included the cost of a visit to the Palace of Versailles.
Higgs bragged that the province's population and economic growth are giving it a higher profile and "this trip to Paris may have been the icing on the cake," Higgs said.
Tourism
Minister Tammy Scott-Wallace took heat for her trip to Europe. Premier
Blaine Higgs is now suggesting it may have played a role in bringing
Macron to the province, despite the fact that's been in the works for
three years. (Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick)
"This is the first time the minister has travelled — travelled abroad, gone to different countries, gone to different places — but it's the first time the president of that country comes to New Brunswick. … That's pretty impressive."
A visit by the French president has in fact been a subject of speculation since 2021, when he named acclaimed Acadian author Antonine Maillet a commander of the French Legion of Honour during a visit to France by an Acadian delegation.
The delegation said at the time it would invite Macron to attend the World Acadian Congress taking place in Nova Scotia this summer.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau officially announced Macron's Moncton visit late Thursday.
Macron will not be the first president of France to visit New Brunswick.
François Mitterrand made a brief stop in the province as part of a Canadian visit in 1987, and Jacques Chirac attended the Francophonie Summit in Moncton in 1999.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Radio-Canada
This is a clip from CBC TV about Bear the Tinker after we had a
little fun the Prime Minister et al in St Andrews during the election
of the 38th Parliament He told me a pretty fun story about the CBC duses
checking out my documents he kept in his Gypsy wagon in Chief Hugh
Akagi's front yard
Bear the Tinker
BearTheTinker 
History is focus of French celebration
Organizers have unveiled plans for a multi-million dollar, week-long summer celebration of the 400th anniversary of North America's first French settlement on St. Croix Island.
In the summer of 1604, French explorer Pierre du Gua de Monts and Samuel de Champlain were looking for a suitable site to establish a permanent French settlement, the first in North America, and they found it on St. Croix Island.
On Monday, Lt.-Gov. Hermengilde Chiasson was part of a delegation that announced how the anniversary of that first French settlement in North America will be marked.
"This was a place of great drama and a story of incredible courage and those people who came, you know, they were like aliens to this place," said Chaisson.
Seventy-nine people settled on the island in the summer of 1604. By autumn, they had built a small village of about 20 buildings, including a governor's house, a cookhouse and a blacksmith's shop. But the winter that year was deadly. Thirty-five people died and were buried on the island.
Donald Soctomah, a Passamaquoddy historian, says the death toll would have been higher, but the local Passamaquoddy Indians helped many of the French survive.
"It's part of our history and we want to be able to tell it the way it should be told."
The 400th anniversary celebration will concentrate on telling the story, says the Canadian co-chair of the events, Alan Gillmor.
"Each evening during the week during the festival there will be a lecture, either in St. Andrews, Calais or St. Stephen featuring the historical aspect of this particular event. It's not all hoopla, it's history as well and you've got to build that all in."
Organizers say a lot of entertainment is also being planned between June 25 and July 4.
How French settlement affected Mi'kmaq people
Patricia Doyle-Bedwell | May 10, 2004
Samuel de Champlain arrived in Nova Scotia on May 12, 1604. The establishment of French outposts in Atlantic Canada led to the founding of Acadia.
Mi'kmaq legend had long foretold the arrival of white men from across the ocean, and the appearance of Europeans in tall ships seemed to fulfil this prophecy:
"Micmacs' first contact with Europeans did not surprise them or alter their world view. A legend in which one of their spiritual beings travelled across the Atlantic to 'discover' Europe taught that blue-eyed people would arrive from the east to disrupt their lives.
Micmac people also knew the story of a woman who had a vision of an island floating toward their lands; the island was decked out with tall trees on which were living beings. Thus the Micmacs were not startled by the appearance of early explorers in sailing ships. Instead, they greeted the newcomers, set up a brisk trade with them, and looked forward to incorporating the strangers' new technologies into their own culture.
Relations with outsiders grew more complex when the Micmacs began converting to Catholicism. This process occurred over a 70-year period, beginning with the conversion of Grand Chief Membertou in 1610."
The arrival of the French, and later the British, significantly changed the Mi'kmaq way of life. When I look at my family tree I see the French influence on my own family. When I listen to the Mi'kmaq language I hear Mi'kmaq words borrowed from the French. The fact that I am Catholic stems from the time of the first contact when Chief Membertou converted to Catholicism.
 Courtesy: National Archives of Canada |
According to stories passed down through Mi'kmaq oral tradition, one of our ancestors had a vision about the arrival of the white man. Perhaps this vision arose from our contact with early Viking settlers. Regardless, Mi'kmaq people have always known that more white people would arrive on their shores.
Mi'kmaq values of sharing and helping ensured that the French would be welcomed here. The French faced life-threatening conditions in the "New World." Without the assistance of the Mi'kmaq, they most certainly would have died. I believe that the Mi'kmaq treated the newcomers in accord with our principles of sharing and inclusion. The French and Mi'kmaq remained allies.
I wonder how our world would have taken shape if the French had not arrived.
Our first experience of the newcomers was based on sharing and caring, and established the parameters of the relationship. The Order of Good Cheer, created by Champlain, included Mi'kmaq people. Some consider the conversion of Chief Membertou to the Catholic faith the first treaty between the Mi'kmaq and the Holy See. Champlain mapped the area and opened the doors to further settlement. He did not do this alone but with the aid of the Mi'kmaq and other aboriginal peoples.
Mi'kmaq people traded with the French and became dependent on foreign goods. Our trade in furs for these goods caused a shift in the economic roles of men and women. The conversion to Catholicism further eroded women's roles in our community as the French missionaries felt that men did not have enough power. The Jesuits who arrived on our shores became friends and allies, but they also felt obliged to "civilize" the "sauvages."
 Courtesy: National Archives of Canada |
But all was not sweetness and light. With the goods and the newcomers, came sickness. Our people began to die from illnesses our medicine people could not cure. Our population decreased significantly during the early period of contact with first the French, and then the British.
If disease had not decimated the Mi'kmaq people, the history of Nova Scotia might have been very different. The friendship between the French and the Mi'kmaq could have changed the military outcome in Nova Scotia if we had not suffered such a population loss.
In commemorating the arrival of the French in Acadia, we cannot forget the impact of their arrival on the Mi'kmaq people and our territory, Mikamaki. Without the Mi'kmaq, the French would have not survived. At the same time, the arrival of the French wrought great change in the Mi'kmaq in terms of our religious beliefs, our trade and our health.
Our language reflects the influence of French speakers, notably the word "Magasan" for store. The Mi'kmaq people had a name for the French, "Wenuj." The influence of the French has been far-reaching. Despite the influence of the newcomers, we as a people have survived, changed but intact.
Patricia Doyle-Bedwell is a Mi'kmaq who teaches law at Dalhousie University.
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