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MONTREAL/TORONTO • The sale of iconic Quebec restaurant chain Groupe St-Hubert Inc. is a good news story for the province, not cause for consternation and handwringing, chief executive officer Jean-Pierre Léger said Thursday.

But coming on the very day shareholders approved the sale of Quebec’s Rona hardware chain to U.S.-based Lowe’s Cos. Inc., news that Ontario-based Cara Operations Ltd. was buying Quebec’s most beloved rotisserie chicken chain for $537 million drew the ire of Quebec nationalists and an ensuing flood of comments on social media, some of them emotional and biting.

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Parti Québécois leader Pierre Karl Péladeau called it “a very sad day” for the province and said Quebec was losing another “entrepreneurial beacon.” François Legault, head of the Coalition Avenir Québec, said the province is becoming a branch plant economy.

Publicly traded Cara operates about 1,000 restaurants across the country, including such banners as Harvey’s, Montana’s, Casey’s, East Side Mario’s — and the chicken chain Swiss Chalet, a force in every Canadian market but Quebec, where St-Hubert dominates.