Yves-Francois Blanchet turned pale under the insult when the moderator of the debate in English accused him to support “discriminatory laws” on secularism and language, but it may indeed have caused the spark that will allow the Bloc Quebecois to relaunch a bumpy campaign.
From the outset, many wondered why this role had been entrusted to the president of Angus Reid, Shachi Kurl, who looked more like an activist, while the media in English Canada are not lacking in journalists. seasoned.
Furthermore, the questions addressed to the leaders of the various parties had been revised with the greatest care and approved by the Debates Committee. Obviously, no one considered the one that Mr.me Kurl addressed to M. Blanchet. It must be concluded that she simply said out loud what all these beautiful people were thinking.
None of the other leaders dared to express in the face of English Canada as a whole the slightest disagreement with what such a question implied, fearing to lose votes in defending the black sheep of the federation.
Their belated desolation was hardly convincing. They took refuge behind the rigid format of the debate, which would have prevented them from intervening. Justin trudeau explained that he didn’t want to add to the cacophony. This sudden concern for respect for the rules was suspicious to say the least. A politician always finds a way to intervene if he really wants to.
The vast majority of Quebeckers undoubtedly did not follow the debate in English, but we can count on Mr. Blanchet to carry his indignation until election day and explain that through him, all of Quebec is the one. was called racist and xenophobic.
After the coup de Jarnac struck by Prime Minister Legault by clearly expressing the wish to see Erin O’Toole form the next government, the leader of the Bloc can only congratulate himself on the turn of events. On Friday, Mr. Legault himself seemed to regret having taken such an open position, congratulating Mr. Blanchet for having defended Quebec.
While it is true that the Conservative leader is more respectful of Quebec’s areas of jurisdiction, everyone has clearly seen who is the quickest to defend their identity and their right to make their own choices. Moreover, it is more in the Bloc than in the Liberals that the Conservative Party risks removing votes if the nationalist voters respond to Mr. Legault’s invitation to vote blue.
Over the course of their history, Quebecers have developed a great tolerance for insults, but sometimes the vase overflows. It was the anger provoked by the rejection of the Meech Lake accord that led Lucien Bouchard to create the Bloc. The slippage to which the debate in English gave rise could well give it a new lease of life.
This could have repercussions well beyond the federal election. The outraged reaction of all the parties represented in the National Assembly can only lead to a resurgence of nationalist sentiment, already nourished by three years of Caquist governance.
Mr. Legault wanted to cut short the interpretation that could be made of his reminder of the words that Robert Bourassa had pronounced on the evening of Meech’s failure: “Whatever we say, whatever we do …” Him – even, however, must ask how far the circumstances could lead him to push his credo autonomist.
In recent weeks, the head of the PLQ, Dominique Anglade, surprised many by the virulence of the attacks against the encroachments of Ottawa in the fields of jurisdiction of Quebec, and she had no other choice but to join his voice to the indignation provoked by this new indictment against “Quebec values”.
For the PQ, what Paul St-Pierre Plamondon called the “Quebec trial” is a true gift from heaven. The aversion that the Quebec difference inspires in English Canada, as soon as it manifests itself concretely, was only waiting for an opportunity to reappear in broad daylight.
In 1989, the images of a band of Orangemen furiously trampling the fleurdelisé in Brockville, Ontario, had symbolized the refusal to accept the specificity of Quebec. Jacques Parizeau, who was also looking for a spark, was delighted.
For the moment, it is the Bloc that can take advantage of Mme Kurl, but he’s one of those fires that smolder long before the flame arises.
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