(Drummondville) The Bloc delegates rejected a block on Saturday of a resolution that made the Parti Québécois “the only political formation in the National Assembly to carry the sovereignist cause”.
A little earlier, Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet had reached out to all sovereigntists of all political allegiances, in a speech given during his party’s congress. Mr. Blanchet also said that the Parti Québécois is “our main vehicle in Quebec”.
Let us understand that even if we are sovereignists from all walks of life, our vehicle in Quebec, the only party that makes independence the issue of its very existence, is the Parti Québécois.
Yves-François Blanchet, leader of the Bloc Québécois
The delegates gathered in Drummondville at the weekend felt, on the contrary, that rallying directly to the Parti Québécois “until the complete attainment of independence for Quebec” risked excluding separatists active in other parties of the ‘National Assembly.
They instead voted in favor of a proposal that recognizes the “historic and privileged” ties between the Bloc Québécois and the Parti Québécois, while affirming the need to “bring together separatists of all stripes”.
More than a hundred proposals on the table
A few minutes later, the Bloc delegates also rejected a motion which affirmed that “a Quebecer is anyone who lives in Quebec and who freely chooses to be one, by adhering to the social contract which binds them to their fellow citizens, to its core values […] “.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
The delegates felt that adding restrictions to the definition of a Quebecer went against the party’s position. They decided to keep the first sentence stating that everyone living in Quebec is a Quebecer.
More than a hundred other proposals will be debated and voted on Saturday and Sunday.
Last November, the Bloc Québécois tabled a thirty-page document entitled We, Quebecers, aimed at redefining the party’s mission. It is this that is debated, amended and will be adopted by the end of the Congress.
” A country ! A country ! »
Yves-François Blanchet was warmly applauded by Bloc supporters during his speech on Saturday morning. The theme of independence was at the heart of his remarks, as his supporters underlined by chanting “one country, one country”, as he left the stage.
The Bloc leader attacked the federalist professions of faith of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) of Quebec Premier François Legault, inviting him to hold his next convention in Ottawa.
Mr. Blanchet spent long minutes of his speech criticizing Ottawa for its subsidies to oil energy from public funds, for its continued affiliation with the British monarchy as well as for its failures in immigration.
The former PQ Minister of the Environment took a minute from his speech to honor the memory of sovereigntist historian and former PQ leadership candidate Frédéric Bastien, who died this week at the age of 53.
With The Canadian Press