Fresh off a monumental speech in Davos that earned him a standing ovation from the global elite attending the World Economic Forum and accolades from a broad spectrum of the public, Prime Minister Mark Carney returned home Thursday to deliver an even higher-stakes address to a much tougher audience: Canadians.

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More precisely, his plea for national unity amid global upheaval seemed aimed at Quebecers.

The setting was the Citadelle in Quebec City’s historic old quarter, where Carney was holding a pre-session cabinet retreat.

It’s a stone’s throw from the National Assembly, where nationalist Premier François Legault recently announced his intention to step down and polls show a soaring Parti Québécois could be poised to win a scheduled fall election.

The Citadelle is a highly symbolic location. The fortress was built by the British to repel an American attack that never came. It also overlooks the storied Plains of Abraham, where the English defeated the French in 1759, a painful turning point in history for Quebecers.

Carney opened with this cataclysmic moment in a speech steeped in history, tracing........

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