Five years after the coronation of Yves-François Blanchet as leader of the Bloc Québécois, his return to a strategy of “gains for Quebec” is welcomed by former leaders and his activists, but not by his immediate predecessor, Martine Ouellet.
The portrait of the Bloc leader sits at the entrance of a hotel in Chicoutimi, where a few dozen fans of Quebec sovereignty flocked to attend a party organized on Tuesday to mark five years of Yves-François’ leadership Blanchet. Marc Fortin, from Alma, is among them.
“Blanchet is not a guy who is here to play politics. He is there to move Quebec forward. And ultimately, it will be good even for Canada! »
The Saguenéen recently registered his name to get involved within the federal party, with the hope of seeing Mr. Blanchet “carry out the project” of Quebec sovereignty, at a time when he senses a renewed interest in this idea policy.
It is also the chef’s mastery of the files that seduced Martine Dufour and Adèle Copeman, long-time sovereignist activists from Chicoutimi. “Luckily the Bloc is there, in Ottawa. Without that, we would know absolutely nothing about what is happening there,” says the latter, before criticizing the television news.
Support from former leaders
“I think he did that very well,” also greets Gilles Duceppe, who led the party for a total of 21 years. The former sovereignist leader shares the stage with his son Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, himself a Bloc MP, during Tuesday evening.
In interview at Duty, Mr. Duceppe remembers the visit that Mr. Blanchet paid him, after the controversial departure of the previous leader, Martine Ouellet, in 2018. He says he incited the former manager of Éric Lapointe — and ex-minister of the government of Pauline Marois — to launch at the federal level. He does not regret this advice.
” I think that [le travail du chef Yves-François Blanchet]it is a continuation of what the Bloc has been doing since its beginnings. […] He remained faithful to it, supporting what is good for Quebec, then opposing what is not good for Quebec. »
Gilles Duceppe takes care to emphasize that the arrival of the current leader, in January 2019, put an end to the difficult years of the Bloc, the starting point of which he places at the “orange wave” of 2011, where his party was washed out by the New Democratic Party (NDP). Eight years later, in 2019, Yves-François Blanchet tripled the Bloc representation in the House of Commons, with 32 elected officials out of the 78 in Quebec.
It was in this troubled in-between that Daniel Paillé became the leader of the Bloc (2011-2013). The latter also believes that his former party “seems to be doing well” under the leadership of the current leader.
“Mr. Blanchet assumes his responsibility very well [de chef]. If he didn’t, the trend would prevail […] and the level of debate would tend to drop,” he says, in reference to the antagonistic style of his conservative rival, Pierre Poilievre, which he presents as a trap to avoid.
A return that does not please everyone
Martine Ouellet, leader between 2017 and 2018, confirms that Yves-François Blanchet “brought the Bloc back in the footsteps of Gilles Duceppe, therefore working to make gains for the province of Quebec in Canada. » She reiterates Duty how bad she thinks of this tactic.
“Not only are we not making any gains, but we are moving backwards within Canada, decision after decision. So it’s a little contradictory with the desire to leave Canada. »
During her time with the Bloc, Ms. Ouellet wanted to refocus the party’s message around the independence of Quebec. Instead, she was faced with a mutiny among her troops, to the point where seven of her party’s ten elected officials briefly sat under another name.
Martine Ouellet believes that the Quebec sovereignist movement is still as divided, five years after her departure from the Bloc, and after having requested a seat in the National Assembly under the banner of her new party, Climat Québec.
“We have exactly the same fractures as before. There are people who are proactive, and others who don’t want to bother. »
In Saguenay, the couple formed by Diane Beaulieu and Marcel Halley hope to see Yves-François Blanchet “for as short a time as possible” in Ottawa, since they are also in a hurry to see a winning referendum on the sovereignty of Quebec. They believe that the leader of the Bloc is capable of making this possible. “My father didn’t see him when he was alive [l’indépendance du Québec]. At the age I am, I would like this to happen as soon as possible,” concludes Mr. Halley.
The 32 Bloc MPs are due to meet mid-week in a hotel in downtown Chicoutimi, in Saguenay, to plan the parliamentary return to Ottawa next Monday.