PQ Leadership

[August1991]

Pauline Marois dropped a bombshell this morning.

Here it is in French (La Presse) and in English (G & M).

Even PM PM didn't go public. But then Chretien was still PM.

Marois has said that the Parizeau election/referendum suggestion should be "examined".

[idealisttotheend]

You would know better than I, August, but I wonder if Marois and her supporters don't smell blood in the water vis a vie the current weakness of the federal government and the ability to blame the sponsorship scandal on the Liberals etc. Levesque waited for Trudeau to leave office after all (and got a nasty suprise when he returned). Not that Chretien was that much of an asset to the federalist cause but I don't see Martin or Harper being that much of an asset either.

Interesting too, the PQ strategy since 95 of being all things to all people. Is it a cunning strategy to slowly make seperation a reality de facto by the slow devolution of what's left of the federal government? Waiting for the next Quebec flag burning? Or is it just people in power wanting to stay in power and having their ideology corrupted by it?

Who knows, will there be another refendum. Will anyone care?

[August1991]

I wonder if Marois and her supporters don't smell blood in the water vis a vie the current weakness of the federal government and the ability to blame the sponsorship scandal on the Liberals etc.

I don't think so. This is internal PQ politics.

It's a combo of Landry's loss, referendum loss, Charest's unpopularity, fears the PQ won't win and most of all, how to go about making Quebec an independent country.

Landry has said that he will only hold a referendum if he knows he can win (since a third loss would end everything). This makes him a "soft" separatist. Marois has sort of presented herself as a "hard" separatist.

As to Marois herself, the consensus, I would say, is that Marois is committing political suicide. (I would disagree with the consensus...)

All eyes will turn to Duceppe now. I'm sure he's figuring out what to say to the press as I write this.

All things considered, expect the PQ to make harsher noises in the future.

[Big Blue Machine]

If Duceppe ran in the race, he would destroy everyone else. But we should say which idea he supports. The election referendum or the original referendum. If they lose another referendum. I hope that will be the end of seperatism in Quebec.

[Guest eureka]

It seems to me that it is the PQ party tht may be committing political suicide. This has the potential to tear it apart and to bring the debate before the public in a way that will lose the support of that part of the electorate that never really knew what it was all about: that would be a considerable number.