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Bloc Québécois

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Template:Infobox Canadian political party The Bloc Québécois (French pronunciation: [blɔk kebekwa], Quebec Bloc) is a federal political party in Canada devoted to the protection of Quebec's interests in the House of Commons of Canada, and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty. The Bloc was formed by Members of Parliament who defected from the federal Progressive Conservative Party and Liberal Party. BQ founder Lucien Bouchard was a cabinet minister in the federal Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney. The BQ seeks to create the conditions necessary for the political secession of Quebec from Canada and campaigns actively only within the province during federal elections. English-speaking Canadians commonly refer to the party as "the Bloc"; the party is sometimes known as the BQ in the English-speaking media.

The Bloc won four seats in the 2011 federal election, fewer than the 12 required for official party status in the House of Commons. It remains a registered political party, but is currently the second smallest party (in front of the one-seat Green Party) in the House of Commons of Canada. It has strong informal ties to the Parti Québécois (PQ, whose members are known as "Péquistes"), the provincial party that advocates for the secession of Quebec from Canada and its independence, but the two are not linked organizationally. As with its provincial counterpart, the Bloc Québécois has been supported by a wide range of voters in Quebec, from large sections of organised labour to more conservative rural voters.[1][2] Members and supporters are known as Bloquistes (French: [blɔkist]).

Positions and ideologies

An incomplete list of Bloc Québécois political positions. Among other things the Bloc Québécois has advocated for:

History

Origins

The Bloc Québécois formed in 1990 as an informal coalition of Progressive Conservative and Liberal Members of Parliament from Quebec, who left their original parties around the time of the defeat of the Meech Lake Accord. The party was initially intended to be temporary and was given the goal of the promotion of sovereignty at the federal level. The party aimed to disband following a successful referendum on secession from Canada. As with most parties, it has gained and lost prominent supporters over the years.[18]

The initial coalition that led to the Bloc was headed by Lucien Bouchard, who had been federal Minister of the Environment in the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney.[18] Bouchard abandoned the government in May 1990 in response to the report of a commission headed by Jean Charest that suggested changes to the Meech Lake Accord. Bouchard felt the recommendations for change undermined the objectives and spirit of the accord. According to The Secret Mulroney Tapes he was fired by Prime Minister Mulroney. Bouchard was joined by five of his fellow Tories, Nic Leblanc, Louis Plamondon, Benoît Tremblay, Gilbert Chartrand, and François Gérin, along with two Liberals, Gilles Rocheleau and Jean Lapierre. The first Bloquiste candidate to be elected was Gilles Duceppe, then a union organizer, in a by-election for the Montreal riding of Laurier—Sainte-Marie on 13 August 1990.[18][19] He ran as an independent, since the Bloc had not been registered as a federal party. Jean Lapierre renounced separatism and rejoined the Liberals during the leadership of Paul Martin.

First election

Logo of the Bloc Quebecois in the 1990s to 2000s.

In the 1993 federal election, the Bloc won 54 seats (out of 75) in Quebec, sweeping nearly all of the francophone ridings there. Because the opposition vote in the rest of Canada was split between the Reform Party, the Progressive Conservative Party, and the New Democratic Party, the Bloc narrowly won the second largest number of seats in the House of Commons, and therefore became the official opposition. While Reform actually finished second in the national popular vote, the Bloc's heavy concentration of support in Quebec was slightly larger than Reform's concentration in the West.[20]

Soon after the new Parliament was sworn in, Bouchard announced that Bloc MPs would only speak French on the floor of the House of Commons, a policy that remains in force to this day. This was out of necessity; most of the Bloquistes could not speak English well enough to use it in debate. Bouchard himself was one of the few Bloquistes who was fluently bilingual.

The election of such a relatively large number of Bloquistes was the first of The Three Periods, a plan intended to lay out the way to sovereignty created by PQ leader Jacques Parizeau. Parizeau became Premier of Quebec in the Quebec election of 1994 (the second of the Three Periods).

As a result of the Bloc being the official opposition, it had considerable privileges over the other parties despite only electing MPs from one province. For instance, Question Periods during the 35th Parliament were dominated by issues of national unity. However, the governing Liberals regarded Reform as their main opposition on non-Quebec matters. Also, in 1995, when Bouchard garnered an invitation to meet visiting US President Bill Clinton by virtue of being Opposition Leader, Reform leader Preston Manning was also given a meeting with Clinton in order to defuse Bouchard's separatist leverage.[21]

1995 Quebec referendum

In 1995, the PQ government called the second referendum on independence in Quebec history. The Bloc entered the campaign for the Oui (Yes) side (in favour of sovereignty). The Oui side's campaign had a difficult beginning, so the leadership of the campaign was shifted from PQ leader Jacques Parizeau to Bloc leader Lucien Bouchard. Bouchard was seen as more charismatic and more moderate, and therefore more likely to attract voters.[22]

A "tripartite agreement" mapping out the plan for accession to independence was written and signed by the leaders of the Parti Québécois, the Bloc Québécois and the Action démocratique du Québec on 12 June 1995.[23] It revived René Lévesque's notion that the referendum should be followed by the negotiating of an association agreement between an independent Quebec and the rest of Canada. This provision was inspired by Bouchard. Parizeau had previously wanted a vote simply on independence. The difference became moot when 50.6% of voters taking part in the referendum rejected the sovereignty plan. An overwhelming "Non" vote in Montreal tipped the balance.

The day after the referendum, Parizeau stepped down as PQ leader and Premier of Quebec. Bouchard left federal politics and succeeded Parizeau in both posts on 26 January 1996.

New leaders for the Bloc

Following Bouchard's departure from Ottawa, Michel Gauthier became leader of the Bloc. In the wake of the referendum defeat, Gauthier proved unable to hold the fractious caucus together and resigned as leader just one year later. Gilles Duceppe, who had served as interim leader after Bouchard stepped down, became leader of the Bloc in 1997 and remained leader up until 2011, resigning after the 2011 federal election.[24][25]

Gilles Duceppe announced on 11 May 2007 that he would run in the Parti Québécois leadership race to replace André Boisclair, who resigned on 8 May 2007, after the poor performance in the March 2007 Quebec provincial election and internal dissent forced him to step down. However, in a surprise move, Duceppe announced the next day that he was withdrawing from the race, and that he would support Pauline Marois who had also announced her intention to run.[26]

Declining fortunes

In the 1997 federal election, the Bloc Québécois dropped to 44 seats, losing official opposition status to the Reform Party. The 1997–2000 term was marked by the Bloc's fight against the passage of the Clarity Act, the attempt by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien (himself a Quebecer who represented a strongly nationalist riding) and Stéphane Dion, a Quebec minister in Chrétien's cabinet, to codify the Supreme Court of Canada's 1998 decision that Quebec could not secede unilaterally.[27]

In the 2000 election, the Bloc dropped further to 38 seats, despite polling a larger percentage of the vote than at the previous election. One factor was the forced merger of several major Quebec cities, such as Montreal, Quebec City and Hull/Gatineau. The merger was very unpopular in those areas, resulting in Liberal wins in several of the merged areas. This was still more than the number of seats the Liberals had won in Quebec. However, the Liberals went on to win several subsequent by-elections during the life of the resulting Parliament, until the Liberals had held the majority of Quebec's seats in the Commons for the first time since the 1984 federal election. From then to the subsequent election, the Bloc continued to denounce the federal government's interventions in what the Bloc saw as exclusively provincial jurisdictions. The Bloc credits its actions for the uncovering of what has since become the sponsorship scandal.[28]

Comeback

The Bloc continued to slide in most of the 2003 opinion polls following the 2003 Quebec election which was won by the federalist Quebec Liberal Party led by Jean Charest. However, things changed during the winter of 2003. The federalist Charest government lost popularity. Then, in February 2004, the Auditor General of Canada uncovered the sponsorship scandal, suggesting illegality in the spending of federal monies in Quebec in support of Canadian unity. As well, the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien passed party financing legislation that resulted in the Bloc receiving millions of dollars in subsidies that helped to stabilize its organization.[29]

For the 2004 election the Bloc adopted the slogan Un parti propre au Québec, a play on words that can be translated either as "A party of Quebec's own" ("a party proper to Quebec") or as "A clean party in Quebec". The Bloc won 54 seats in the House of Commons, tying its previous record from the 1993 campaign. For the 2006 election, the Bloc used the slogan Heureusement, ici, c'est le Bloc! ("Fortunately, the Bloc is here!").[30] The Bloc were expected to easily win more than 60 seats at the start of the campaign, and they did in fact take six seats from the Liberals. However, the unexpected surge of the new Conservative Party of Canada in parts of Quebec, particularly in and around Quebec City, led to the Bloc losing eight seats to the Tories. Coupled with an additional loss to André Arthur, an independent candidate, the Bloc recorded a net loss of three seats.[31]

The Conservative Party won a plurality (but not a majority) of seats in the House of Commons, thus forming a minority government. There was persistent speculation as to the possibility of the Bloc forming alliances with other opposition parties to wrest the government away from the Conservatives. Duceppe, whose leadership was confirmed after the election, maintained that the Bloc would continue to co-operate with other opposition parties or with the government when this advantaged Quebec, but would not participate in a federal government.[citation needed]

On 2 May 2006, a poll revealed that for the first time, the Conservatives were ahead of the Bloc among Quebec voters (34% against 31%)[citation needed]. Duceppe announced the Bloc would support Prime Minister Stephen Harper's budget that same day. By October polls showed that the Bloc was up to mid forties whereas the Conservatives fell into the teens behind Liberals in their poll numbers in Quebec[citation needed].

Slight gains

The Bloc made slight gains following the 2008 federal elections as they won 49 seats, one more than the amount they had before the previous parliament was dissolved. In that election, they used the slogan "Présent pour le Québec" (Present for Quebec). Although they made small gains in relation to the amount of seats at dissolution, they fell by 2 seats to 49 in comparison to the 51 they received in 2006. Also, the proportion of popular votes in the province was down 4 points to 38.1%, the Bloc's lowest score since 1997.

In a speech in front of his supporters following the election, BQ leader Gilles Duceppe claimed to have achieved his objectives, adding: "without the Bloc Québécois tonight, Mr. Harper would have formed a majority government".[32]

At the end of November 2008, the Bloc indicated that it would support a possible Motion of No Confidence against the governing Conservatives by the two other opposition parties, and would support the resulting Liberal-NDP coalition government at least until June 2010, without actually being part of the government.[33]

Coalition attempt

On 26 March 2011, Bloc Québécois leader Duceppe stated that Conservative leader Stephen Harper had in 2004 tried to form a coalition government with the Bloc and NDP in response to Harper's allegations that the Liberals intended to form a coalition with the Bloc and the NDP.[34] Stephen Harper privately met with BQ leader Gilles Duceppe and New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton in a Montreal hotel. The meeting took place between the three party leaders happened 2 months after the 2004 federal election.[35] On 9 September 2004, the three signed a letter addressed to then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, stating,

We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise, this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority.[35]

On the same day the letter was written, the three party leaders held a joint press conference at which they expressed their intent to co-operate on changing parliamentary rules, and to request that the Governor General consult with them before deciding to call an election.[36] At the news conference, Harper said "It is the Parliament that's supposed to run the country, not just the largest party and the single leader of that party. That's a criticism I've had and that we've had and that most Canadians have had for a long, long time now so this is an opportunity to start to change that." However, at the time, Harper and the two other opposition leaders denied trying to form a coalition government, despite the letter written to the Governor General.[35] Harper said, "This is not a coalition, but this is a co-operative effort."[36]

One month later, on 4 October, Mike Duffy, now a Conservative senator (appointed by Harper), said "It is possible that you could change prime minister without having an election," and that some Conservatives wanted Harper as prime minister. The next day Layton walked out on talks with Harper and Duceppe, accusing them of trying to replace Paul Martin with Harper as prime minister. Both Bloc and Conservative officials denied Layton's accusations.[35]

Loss of official party status

In the 2011 federal election, in the wake of a surge of support for the New Democratic Party, the Bloc received less than a quarter of the popular vote in Quebec (less than 6% of all the total votes in the elections), lost 44 of the 47 seats it held at parliament's dissolution, and only added one seat, which had been vacated by a Bloc Québécois member six months prior to the election. The seats lost included that of Duceppe, who resigned as party president and leader. It also lost all but one of its seats in Montreal. With few exceptions, the Bloc's support bled over to the NDP, though the Bloc did not suffer as severe a beating as the one it handed the PCs 18 years earlier.

By electing only four MPs the Bloc failed to reach the minimum of 12 seats required for official party status in the House of Commons. MPs without official party status are treated as independents and must sit in the back row of the opposition benches. They are permitted just a few questions each week in question period and cannot sit as voting members on parliamentary committees.[37][38]

Elected to Parliament in this election were incumbents Louis Plamondon, André Bellavance, Maria Mourani and rookie MP Jean-François Fortin. When the 41st Canadian Parliament convened on 2 June 2011, Plamondon became the Bloc's interim parliamentary leader.[39] Vivian Barbot served as interim leader and party president following Duceppe's resignation until the party's 2011 leadership election.[40]

The Bloc Québécois leadership election campaign to choose a permanent successor to Duceppe began on 17 September 2011 and concluded on 11 December[41] with the election of former MP for Hochelaga Daniel Paillé as party leader.[42][43] Plamondon, the longest-serving member of the Commons, will serve as parliamentary leader until Paillé can get back into the Commons.

On 28 February 2013, Claude Patry defected from the New Democratic Party and joined the Bloc, quoting his disagreement with the New Democratic Party on the subject of Quebec sovereignty, bringing the party's total seats in Parliament up to five.[44]

Relationship to Parti Québécois

The Parti Québécois has close ties to the Bloc and shares its principal objective of independence for Quebec. The two parties have backed each other during election campaigns, and prominent members of each party often attend and speak at the other's public events. In addition, the majority of each party's membership holds membership in both parties. However, on an organizational level the parties are separate entities – the Bloc is not simply the federal wing of the Parti Québécois, nor the PQ simply the provincial wing of the Bloc. Gilles Duceppe helped Pauline Marois campaign in the 2008 Quebec provincial election, she did not win and the Liberals gained a slight majority.[45] During the 2011 federal election former Parti Québécois leader Jacques Parizeau campaigned with Duceppe and called on Parti Québécois members to vote for the Bloc.[46]

Lucien Bouchard has been the leader of both parties. Michel Gauthier, once Bloc's leader, was a PQ member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1981 until 1988. The current party leader Daniel Paillé was also a PQ member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1994 to 1996, and a BQ member of Parliament from 2009 to 2011.

Party leaders

See also: Bloc Québécois leadership elections
Picture Name Term start Term end Riding while leader Notes
Lucien Bouchard 25 July 1990 16 January 1996 Lac-Saint-Jean First leader
Gilles Duceppe 16 January 1996 17 February 1996 Laurier—Sainte-Marie Interim leader
Michel Gauthier 17 February 1996 15 March 1997 Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean
Gilles Duceppe 15 March 1997 2 May 2011 Laurier—Sainte-Marie
Vivian Barbot (interim) 2 May 2011 11 December 2011 [[aunt jemima

]] served as interim leader and president of the party.[40] Louis Plamondon was acting leader in the House of Commons.

Daniel Paillé 11 December 2011 Incumbent

Election results

Election # of candidates nominated # of seats won # of total votes % of popular vote (Canada) % of popular vote (Quebec)
1993
75
54
1,846,024
13.5%
49.3%
1997
75
44
1,385,821
10.7%
37.9%
2000
75
38
1,377,727
10.7%
39.9%
2004
75
54
1,680,109
12.4%
48.9%
2006
75
51
1,553,201
10.5%
42.1%
2008
75
49
1,379,628
10.0%
38.1%
2011
75
4
889,788
6.0%
23.4%

See also

References

  1. ^ "Boisclair gets emotional talking about homophobia". CTV News. 4 March 2007. Retrieved 30 December 2011.
  2. ^ "Results suggest rift between urban, rural voters". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 24 January 2006. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  3. ^ "MPs reject Clarity Act repeal in 283-5 vote". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 6 March 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  4. ^ "Trudeau knocks Mulcair for 50-plus-1 stance on separation". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 28 January 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  5. ^ Heinrich, Jeff (20 April 2013). "Bloc Québécois look to future for success". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
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  14. ^ "MPs vote against NDP motion to abolish Senate". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 6 March 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
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  19. ^ "DUCEPPE, Gilles". Parliament of Canada. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
  20. ^ "Bloc Québécois forms the Opposition in 1993 election". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Digital Archives. 26 October 1993. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  21. ^ WARREN CARAGATA in Ottawa with CARL MOLLINS in Washington. "Clinton Visits Chrétien". Thecanadianencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 9 September 2009.
  22. ^ "The 1995 Quebec referendum: Turning the 'Yes' tide". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 30 October 1995. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  23. ^ "1995 Quebec referendum: A "Yes" alliance". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 12 June 1995. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  24. ^ "Duceppe resigns as Bloc leader after losing riding". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. 24 August 2012.
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  30. ^ "BQ_DepEthno - anglais" (PDF).
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  35. ^ a b c d "Harper, Layton, Duceppe sought 'co-opposition' in 2004 letter to GG". Montreal Gazette. 27 March 2011.
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  40. ^ a b "LEADERSHIP ROLES". Parliament of Canada. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
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  44. ^ "Mulcair calls on Patry to resign seat after defection to Bloc". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 28 February 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  45. ^ "PQ gains help Marois rebuild party from disastrous 2007 election". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 9 December 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2012.
  46. ^ "Parizeau calls on PQ to rally behind Bloc". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 25 April 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2012.

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