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With the fortunes of the Liberals in Quebec seemingly still in decline, the Bloc Québécois have taken to wearing a mantle which the Liberals had once regarded as their own. During a rally of supporters in Bois-des-Filions recently, Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe referred to the Bloc as "the only federal party from Quebec which defends the identity, the values and the interests of the Quebec nation."
Sovereignty 'pertinent' – Duceppe
The claim is also interesting, in that the Bloc is contesting this election while placing less emphasis that it has in the past on the issue of Quebec sovereignty. Reacting to comments that prominent Parti Québécois member François Legault made recently, that in the current political climate Quebec sovereignty has become difficult to sell, Duceppe told NSN, "He said also that sovereignty is pertinent. Well, I would say that when you say that something is pertinent, it means that you have to talk about it, and he talked about cynicism also in the population.
"I think cynicism doesn't exist from last year … I think the situation in Quebec is that neither the sovereignists have a majority, and neither are the federalists ready to include Quebec in the constitution. And they say that le fruit n'est pas mur — the time has not come. So if it's true for them, it's true for us. So let us discuss both options and convince people this (sovereignty) is what democracy is about. So I think that we have to talk about that. We'll talk about it during the federal election, of course.
Separatism dead?
"I remember that (Pierre) Trudeau in August 1976 said separatism is dead in Quebec. In November 1976, (René) Levesque won for the first time. I remember that (Jean) Chrétien said four weeks before the last referendum in 1995 — we were at 39 per cent (support) at the time — that he was going to crush us. You know how it finished. So I think there were better prophets in human history than those two, and politics is just like life — it's not a straight highway. It goes with curves, and a very dangerous thing on a curve is to go straight."
Despite all that, the closest Duceppe gets in a press release to alluding to sovereignty comes when he attacks the Conservatives for ignoring culture, the economy and the environment, "in addition to ignoring the aspirations of the Quebec nation." The Bloc, on the other hand, is depicted as the only federal party concerned with "advancing the interests of Quebec," without any mention of political independence. Based on polls, Duceppe told journalists that "the only party capable of beating the Conservatives is us, and we are going to do it."
'Not against Canada'
The way he phrased the party's attitude during a talk to supporters, "We're not against Canada, we're for Quebec. There's a way to come to an understanding with our neighbours — the colour of the fence. But when they arrive to paint your bedroom, that's when it starts to be a problem. That's what's happening in Canada." In the end, he got around to alluding more specifically to the underlying theme in the Bloc's agenda. "We want a country, we want sovereignty … and for that Harper must be prevented from having a majority, and a majority of seats must be given to the Bloc Québécois."
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