Bloc Quebecois revives...

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the New York Times,  June 25, 2004

Separatist Revives Movement in Quebec
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

MONTREAL, June 24  Until a few months ago, Gilles Duceppe was a shaky
leader of the fading separatist movement in Quebec, seemingly destined to
be an odd footnote in Canadian history.

But in a turn of fortunes that has more to do with the collapse of the
governing Liberal Party than his own skills, Mr. Duceppe is emerging as
the big winner of the parliamentary election campaign that will choose a
new prime minister on Monday.

Mr. Duceppe has no chance of replacing Prime Minister Paul Martin, because
his party is competing just in Quebec. Because of widespread disgust in
the second most populous Canadian province over Liberals' scandals, Mr.
Duceppe's Bloc Quebecois is poised to sweep Quebec and carry a large
delegation to the next House of Commons. If recent polls hold, the bloc
will emerge for the first time as a vital power broker in Ottawa whose
support may well be necessary for the next federal Liberal or Conservative
government to survive in power.

The son of a famous actor, Mr. Duceppe was a Maoist union organizer in his
youth and appears an unlikely politician to become a leading national
force. His generally stiff speaking style makes him anything but an
inspiring political leader. He was the laughingstock of a campaign seven
years ago, when he was photographed wearing a hygienic hairnet at a cheese
factory that made him look like he was coming out of the bath wearing a
shower cap.

For a rebel leader, Mr. Duceppe appears to be a portrait of caution and
paradox. At age 56, he campaigns without a tie in a charcoal-gray suit
held up over his slight frame by a belt and suspenders. On his campaign
bus, he relaxes with high-volume Janis Joplin and Maria Callas.

A year ago, Mr. Duceppe's Bloc Quebecois and the entire separatist
movement were waning into the fringes of politics. The bloc's provincial
cousins, the Parti Quebecois, lost control of the provincial legislature
and government in a landslide defeat in April 2003 to the Liberal Party
led by Jean Charest, a passionate advocate for a united Canada.

Since that vote, Mr. Charest has fallen quickly in the polls after
unfulfilled promises to cut taxes and improve health care and day care.
A government audit found that the federal government had furtively passed
out tens of millions of dollars to friendly advertising companies involved
in antiseparatist publicity efforts deeply offended Quebecers.

"The Liberals tried to buy Quebecers, and there is a lot of indignation
about that," Mr. Duceppe said in an interview. He modestly noted that a
recent poll by Leger Marketing showed that roughly half the people who
planned to vote for the bloc's parliamentary candidates were not trying to
win sovereignty but merely trying to punish Mr. Martin and the governing
party.

"Duceppe is riding the biggest surfing wave of his life," Michel C. Auger,
political columnist of the Journal de Montral, said. "He didn't create the
wave, but he saw it and knew what to do with it."

Mr. Duceppe's campaign is tightly controlled to avoid any more hairnet
incidents. A day of campaigning in and around Montreal this week was
carefully choreographed to make him appear as liberal and unthreatening as
possible to fence-sitting voters, especially ethnic minorities who usually
vote Liberal and oppose separation from Canada.

While appearing on a youth music television station to discuss his support
for environmental protection and the need to clean up politics, he spoke
of the importance of Black History Month and Jackie Robinson's playing for
a minor league team here as a sign that he is receptive to minorities. At
a news conference, he courted minority votes by speaking of the Jewish
Holocaust and Armenian genocide.

He attended a barbecue here for an underdog bloc candidate, Maria Mourani,
who is of Lebanese descent, where he was filmed and photographed
surrounded by Muslim, Chinese and Russian voters.

"There's no difference between Quebecers who are immigrants and Quebecois
de souche," he said sitting beside Ms. Mourani, referring to Quebecers
whose ancestors were French settlers before the 18th-century British
conquest. It was a pitch before the cameras with future elections in mind.

Although Liberal candidates in some Quebec districts have thrown in the
towel and halted campaigning, separatist leaders around the province plan
to build on the expected victory to retake the provincial government in
2007. Mr. Duceppe may well use his campaign this year to set up a campaign
as leader of the Parti Quebecois against Mr. Charest, followed by a push
for a referendum a year or two after that. The separatist forces lost two
referendums, in 1980 and 1995, the second defeat by an extremely narrow
margin. Polls show support for sovereignty at 40 to 45 percent.

Mr. Duceppe is careful to repeat at almost every campaign stop that the
election on Monday is not about sovereignty and that he is ready to work
in Ottawa to influence policies like opposing any missile defense
agreement with the United States and pressing for more federal money for
health care and unemployment insurance.

In two television debates, Mr. Duceppe projected the most poise of the
four major party leaders, surpassing expectations.

At the same time, he makes no effort to hide his long-term intentions.

"Quebec is a nation that will someday be a country," he said at a press
conference on Tuesday. "I want to create a new society with social
justice, without racism or sexism."

Prime Minister Martin, who represents a Montreal district in the House of
Commons, had hoped to appeal to Quebec nationalists by appointing Jean
Lapierre, a former founder of the Bloc Quebecois, to be his chief Quebec
spokesman. But Mr. Lapierre proved to be a clumsy advocate, leading Mr.
Martin in the last week to turn to Liberal hard-line antiseparatists to
shore up the traditional Liberal base.

"Let's not play with fire," Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew warned this
week. "By voting for the bloc, you give them momentum. You give them the
taste of victory that they had lost recently."