Graeme Hamilton: Separatist movement in disarray
Source: nationalpost
The latest group of separatists making life difficult for Parti
Québécois leader Pauline Marois published a high-flown manifesto this
week announcing the dawn of a new era. “Suddenly, everything is opening
up,” the Nouveau Mouvement pour le Québec declared.
But this supposed new era has a feel of déjà vu. In the 1960s, proponents of Quebec independence, from the moderate to the radical, were scattered among different political groups before uniting under the banner of René Lévesque’s PQ. If the disintegration of the party Lévesque founded continues — and so far Ms. Marois appears powerless to stop it — Quebec separatists could be headed back to the ’60s, when their lack of unity robbed them of political clout.
Since the NDP rout of the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois in the May 2 federal election, the PQ has been hopping from crisis to crisis. Five of its members of the national assembly have quit. (Four complained the party’s drive for independence was too sluggish and the fifth said it was too fast; nobody is saying it’s just right.) The PQ’s lead over the governing Liberals, which a poll put at 10 points as recently as March, has evaporated.
Ms. Marois said this latest assault on her leadership is sowing further division. She told reporters Monday that the manifesto, which called the PQ “worn out” and “confused,” showed contempt for the party’s membership. “I don’t think divide and conquer is a very good attitude to have,” she complained.
The very fact that the Nouveau Mouvement pour le Québec (NMQ), with a manifesto long on rhetoric but short on concrete proposals, has managed to create such a panic speaks to the fragility of the PQ. Three of the MNAs who quit the PQ in June plan to be at the NMQ’s official launch Sunday, and La Presse reported Wednesday that some sitting Péquistes are also hoping to attend. NMQ founder Jocelyn Desjardins, who left the PQ in disgust in April, has not ruled out transforming his movement into an official political party.
And one of the MNAs who resigned, Jean-Martin Aussant, announced this week that he has chosen a name for the sovereigntist party he is considering founding. He would call it Option Québec, a nod to the title of a book Lévesque published in 1968, just before the PQ was born.
A political arena dominated for decades by the Liberals and the PQ, with a brief period of success enjoyed by the Action démocratique du Québec, may be about to get very crowded.
The PQ has been living with a challenge on its left flank since the 2006 founding of Québec Solidaire, a sovereigntist party that elected its first member in 2008. More damaging has been the emergence of a coalition, expected to become an official party in time for the next election, led by former PQ Cabinet minister François Legault. Mr. Legault’s Coalition pour l’avenir du Québec promises to focus on improving health care and education and eliminating the province’s debt. Any talk of sovereignty is shelved for at least 10 years.
A CROP poll for La Presse in June found that a party led by Mr. Legault would sweep the province and destroy the PQ. It showed Mr. Legault’s coalition winning 40% support, compared with 26% for the Liberals and just 17% for the PQ. Suddenly, people are wondering whether the Bloc’s unexpected implosion on May 2, reduced to just four seats, is a sign of things to come for the PQ. The Bloc is in such a sorry state that nobody has come forward to run for the leadership vacated by Gilles Duceppe on election night. Three people hailed as potential leaders — Daniel Paillé, Pierre Paquette and Bernard Bigras — have announced they will not seek the job.
The PQ, born as a coalition of divergent groups sharing the overriding goal of achieving independence, has always been an unruly outfit. It has survived previous existential crises and could well emerge intact from the current one.
But after more than 40 years that have left the movement no closer to its ultimate goal, the PQ could also be headed back to its roots. There would be a party for the moderates, a party or two for the hardliners, a party for the leftists and one for the nationalists willing to put aside their dream of a country.
It will make for less backstabbing, but it is hard to see how it will help the overall cause.
Allen McInnis/Postmedia News
Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois is
enduring fresh attacks from separatists in the Nouveau Mouvement pour
le Québec, which calls the PQ “worn out” and “confused.”
But this supposed new era has a feel of déjà vu. In the 1960s, proponents of Quebec independence, from the moderate to the radical, were scattered among different political groups before uniting under the banner of René Lévesque’s PQ. If the disintegration of the party Lévesque founded continues — and so far Ms. Marois appears powerless to stop it — Quebec separatists could be headed back to the ’60s, when their lack of unity robbed them of political clout.
Since the NDP rout of the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois in the May 2 federal election, the PQ has been hopping from crisis to crisis. Five of its members of the national assembly have quit. (Four complained the party’s drive for independence was too sluggish and the fifth said it was too fast; nobody is saying it’s just right.) The PQ’s lead over the governing Liberals, which a poll put at 10 points as recently as March, has evaporated.
Ms. Marois said this latest assault on her leadership is sowing further division. She told reporters Monday that the manifesto, which called the PQ “worn out” and “confused,” showed contempt for the party’s membership. “I don’t think divide and conquer is a very good attitude to have,” she complained.
The very fact that the Nouveau Mouvement pour le Québec (NMQ), with a manifesto long on rhetoric but short on concrete proposals, has managed to create such a panic speaks to the fragility of the PQ. Three of the MNAs who quit the PQ in June plan to be at the NMQ’s official launch Sunday, and La Presse reported Wednesday that some sitting Péquistes are also hoping to attend. NMQ founder Jocelyn Desjardins, who left the PQ in disgust in April, has not ruled out transforming his movement into an official political party.
And one of the MNAs who resigned, Jean-Martin Aussant, announced this week that he has chosen a name for the sovereigntist party he is considering founding. He would call it Option Québec, a nod to the title of a book Lévesque published in 1968, just before the PQ was born.
A political arena dominated for decades by the Liberals and the PQ, with a brief period of success enjoyed by the Action démocratique du Québec, may be about to get very crowded.
The PQ has been living with a challenge on its left flank since the 2006 founding of Québec Solidaire, a sovereigntist party that elected its first member in 2008. More damaging has been the emergence of a coalition, expected to become an official party in time for the next election, led by former PQ Cabinet minister François Legault. Mr. Legault’s Coalition pour l’avenir du Québec promises to focus on improving health care and education and eliminating the province’s debt. Any talk of sovereignty is shelved for at least 10 years.
A CROP poll for La Presse in June found that a party led by Mr. Legault would sweep the province and destroy the PQ. It showed Mr. Legault’s coalition winning 40% support, compared with 26% for the Liberals and just 17% for the PQ. Suddenly, people are wondering whether the Bloc’s unexpected implosion on May 2, reduced to just four seats, is a sign of things to come for the PQ. The Bloc is in such a sorry state that nobody has come forward to run for the leadership vacated by Gilles Duceppe on election night. Three people hailed as potential leaders — Daniel Paillé, Pierre Paquette and Bernard Bigras — have announced they will not seek the job.
The PQ, born as a coalition of divergent groups sharing the overriding goal of achieving independence, has always been an unruly outfit. It has survived previous existential crises and could well emerge intact from the current one.
But after more than 40 years that have left the movement no closer to its ultimate goal, the PQ could also be headed back to its roots. There would be a party for the moderates, a party or two for the hardliners, a party for the leftists and one for the nationalists willing to put aside their dream of a country.
It will make for less backstabbing, but it is hard to see how it will help the overall cause.
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