They’ll have to go
Whatever the outcome of this election, the status of the Bloc Quebecois as a federal political party should be rescinded. The Bloc is little more than a bunch of hypocrites who take federal paycheques as well as federal funds for parliamentary staff and constituency offices all the while trying to create a sovereign Quebec. The party has had some electoral success in Quebec under a variety of leaders since its founding in 1991. Led by Lucien Bouchard and Gilles Duceppe, among others, the Bloc won fifty-four seats in 1993 and 2004 while hitting a low of two seats in 2014. At dissolution they held thirty-two, all in Quebec.
I’ve got no problem with regional parties that promote their local interests. The Reform Party was launched in 1987 in the West because it claimed Ottawa was paying no attention to their needs. Within ten years Reform ran candidates across Canada. In 2000 the Reform Party became the Canadian Alliance that in 2003 merged with the Progressive Conservative Party to become the Conservative Party of today.
The Bloc has always been a regional party with no such national ambitions. Its spoilsport position could not have been more clearly stated than it was recently by current Bloc leader Francois Blanchet. In the course of last week’s English language debate Blanchet said, “I’m not very much interested in leading Canada. However, I am very much interested in making sure that Quebec is entitled to its own vision for the future.” That sounds to me like the role of a provincial premier and he should run for that office, not a federal post.
The House of Commons should take up as an early priority any and all changes to the Canada Elections Act that would prohibit such partisan time wasting as is practiced by the Bloc. After all, would you invite anyone to your house if what they sought to do was tear it down?
I’d only qualify your proposition by suggesting that voters and politicians should be allowed to be parochial, indeed, separatists. I’d recognize a party that could raise campaign funds and secure candidates within one province. To benefit as a registered national party, however, it should be able to nominate candidates in at least, say, seven provinces—potentially, enough to govern and change the country.