Federal Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez launched a Quebec election campaign, saying it is time for Avenir Quebec Alliance leader François Legault to stop dividing Quebec into "us and them."

Rodriguez was responding to comments made by Legault at an election rally on Sunday that immigration of non-French speakers to the province poses a threat to "national cohesion."

The minister told reporters outside the federal Liberal caucus meeting in Saint Andrews, noting today that he wonders whether Legault would consider him and his parents threats because they did not speak French when they immigrated to Quebec from Argentina.

Rodriguez, who is the Prime Minister's lieutenant in Quebec, pointed out that his family learned French and his parents became professors at the French-speaking University of Sherbrooke.

Quebec Liberal leader Dominique Anglade, whose parents were Haitian immigrants, told reporters in Laval, QC, that Legault’s comments were "pathetic" and accused him of trying to turn people against each other.