(Saguenay) Bloc Québécois deputies gathered Wednesday in Saguenay to prepare for the start of the parliamentary term, the day after a demonstration of unity behind their leader, Yves-François Blanchet, who has just celebrated his fifth birthday at the head of political training.
Gathered in the riding they wish to wrest from the Conservatives, the Bloc intend to discuss the “proposals” that they will begin to put forward next week.
Speaking Tuesday to activists and his caucus already gathered at the Bleuets for a celebration, Mr. Blanchet maintained that his troops would engage in politics in a positive way.
“I get asked about 83 times a day, ‘Oh, you, the terror and the shivering, (Pierre) Poilievre? Pantoute,” he said during a speech.
He said he and his caucus are avoiding negative politics targeting Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
“We are going to take the darkest issues, we are going to do something positive with them,” he said. Then, we will make proposals […] we’re going to want it to reach people so that people can compare, because that’s democracy. »
Mr. Blanchet, however, had a message for the Conservatives and, more particularly, for their MP for the Chicoutimi—Le Fjord riding, Richard Martel.
“There are not 55 conservative counties that we want to conquer […]but Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, sorry, Richard, you are really at the top of the list,” he said, drawing applause.
In an interview earlier this month, Mr. Blanchet told La Presse Canadienne that the coveted riding is “nationalist and, in many ways in the past, sovereignist.”
Justin Trudeau’s troops have 35 MPs in Quebec, three more than the Bloc who nevertheless received more votes during the 2021 general elections.
Mr. Blanchet hopes that, when voters are called back to the polls, his party will this time obtain more seats than its opponents.
He thus wishes “to be able, without nuance, to be the voice of Quebec in the federal Parliament”.
Mr. Blanchet was welcomed on stage Tuesday by the former leader of the Bloc Québécois Gilles Duceppe.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Gilles Duceppe and Yves-François Blanchet
The latter, who was at the head of the sovereignist party for 14 years, remembered having encouraged the current leader to lead the Bloc boat.
“The Bloc was in temporary difficulties,” he summarized, alluding to the tensions which imploded under the leadership of Martine Ouellet.
According to him, in five years, Mr. Blanchet put the party back on track, and these years were “of work, of effort, of success”.
In an interview, he maintained that five years spent at the head of a party like the Bloc Québécois represent “a determination to achieve our objectives by telling ourselves that we must continue.”
“I think Yves-François has returned to work in a quite extraordinary way,” he continued.
To those who wonder if the honeymoon of the current Bloc leader is here to last, Mr. Duceppe replies that “history shows us that there is nothing surprising, there are only unexpected things. He then asserts that at several moments in Quebec history, support for sovereignty has increased, thwarting the expectations of many.
The Bloc Québécois caucus retreat in Saguenay, which officially begins Wednesday, is scheduled to last two days.
Mr. Blanchet was crowned leader of the Bloc Québécois in January 2019. He previously served as a minister in the PQ government of Pauline Marois.
Before entering the political world, the Bloc leader was notably manager of singer Éric Lapointe and president of the Quebec Association of the Recording, Entertainment and Video Industry (ADISQ).