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Liberal member Greg Kelley, who represents a riding in Montreal’s English-speaking West Island, said in a recent interview that Legault’s government uses the rhetoric of us versus them.

“It’s frustrating, because it’s not the tone you want to hear from the premier,” Kelley said of Legault’s March comments.

“There is a lot of this: ‘We have the support of the francophones, and you people are just the others.’ You see it in what they say sometimes in the (legislature).”

Just north of Montreal is Laval, home to the riding of Christopher Skeete, a member of Legault’s Coalition and his point-man for relations with Quebec anglophones.

There is a lot of this: 'We have the support of the francophones, and you people are just the others.' You see it in what they say sometimes in the (legislature)

Born to a Quebecois mother and a Trinidadian father, Skeete — a Laval native — is as comfortable in French as he is in English. And he defends his boss.

“When you look at Liberal support, you would be hard-pressed not to recognize that the Liberal party has been relegated to the island of Montreal,” Skeete said. All but four of the 31 seats the Liberals won in the October election were in or around Montreal.

“They are in the last bastions of support,” he continued. “I think it’s fair game to highlight that in a partisan boxing match. Does it mean we have anything against English-speaking Quebecers? No.”

But recent cabinet decisions are creating a sense of anxiety among anglophones, who worry the worst is yet to come, said Geoffrey Chambers, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network.

QCGN, an anglo-rights advocacy organization, had successfully lobbied the Liberal government in 2017 to create an office dedicated to the concerns of the province’s main linguistic minority, called the secretariat for relations with English-speaking Quebecers.