Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois

The Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois (French pronunciation:Â â€‹[blÉ"k kebekwa], Quebec Bloc) is a federal political party in Canada devoted to the protection of Quebec's interests in the House of Commons of Canada, and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty. The Bloc was formed by Members of Parliament who defected from the federal Progressive Conservative Party and Liberal Party. BQ founder Lucien Bouchard was a cabinet minister in the federal Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney. The BQ seeks to create the conditions necessary for the political secession of Quebec from Canada and campaigns actively only within the province during federal elections. English-speaking Canadians commonly refer to the party as "the Bloc"; the party is sometimes known as the BQ in the English-speaking media. The party has been described as social-democratic and separatist. The Bloc won four seats in the 2011 federal election, fewer than the 12 required for official party status in the House of Commons, and by August 2014 had been reduced to two seats due to resignations and expulsions. It remains a registered political party, but is currently tied with the two-seat Green Party and the Forces et DÃ©mocratie as the smallest party in the House of Commons of Canada. It has strong informal ties to the Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois (PQ, whose members are known as "PÃ©quistes"), the provincial party that advocates for the secession of Quebec from Canada and its independence, but the two are not linked organizationally. As with its provincial counterpart, the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois has been supported by a wide range of voters in Quebec, from large sections of organised labour to more conservative rural voters. Members and supporters are known as Bloquistes (French:Â [blÉ"kist]) (English: Bloquists).

Positions and ideologies

An incomplete list of Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois political positions. Among other things the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois has advocated for:

Quebec sovereignty, up to independence, specifically repeal of the Clarity Act and opposition to the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project.
Environmentalism, specifically supporting the Kyoto Accord.
Abortion rights.
LGBT rights, specifically the legalization of same-sex marriage.
Decriminalization of cannabis.
Legalization of assisted suicide.
Abolition of the Canadian Senate.
Withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan.
Opposition to Canadian participation in the Iraq War in 2003.

History

Origins

The Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois was formed in 1990 as an informal coalition of Progressive Conservative and Liberal Members of Parliament from Quebec, who left their original parties around the time of the defeat of the Meech Lake Accord. The party was intended to be temporary and was given the goal of the promotion of sovereignty at the federal level. The party aimed to disband following a successful referendum on secession from Canada. As with most parties, it has gained and lost prominent supporters over the years.

The initial coalition that led to the Bloc was headed by Lucien Bouchard, who had been federal Minister of the Environment in the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney. Bouchard abandoned the government in May 1990 in response to the report of a commission headed by Jean Charest that suggested changes to the Meech Lake Accord. Bouchard felt the recommendations for change undermined the objectives and spirit of the accord. According to The Secret Mulroney Tapes he was fired by Prime Minister Mulroney. Bouchard was joined by five of his fellow Tories, Nic Leblanc, Louis Plamondon, BenoÃ®t Tremblay, Gilbert Chartrand, and FranÃ§ois GÃ©rin, along with two Liberals, Gilles Rocheleau and Jean Lapierre. The first Bloquiste candidate to be elected was Gilles Duceppe, then a union organizer, in a by-election for the Montreal riding of Laurierâ€"Sainte-Marie on 13 August 1990. He ran as an independent, since the Bloc had not been registered as a federal party. Jean Lapierre renounced separatism and rejoined the Liberals during the leadership of Paul Martin.

First election

In the 1993 federal election, the Bloc won 54 seats (out of 75) in Quebec, sweeping nearly all of the francophone ridings. Because the opposition vote in the rest of Canada was split between the Reform Party, the Progressive Conservative Party, and the New Democratic Party, the Bloc narrowly won the second largest number of seats in the House of Commons, and therefore became the official opposition. While Reform finished second in the national popular vote, the Bloc's heavy concentration of support in Quebec was slightly larger than Reform's concentration in the West.

Soon after the new Parliament was sworn in, Bouchard announced that Bloquiste MPs would only speak French on the floor of the House of Commons, a policy that remains in force to this day. This was out of necessity; although Bouchard and most of the Bloc's founding members were fluently bilingual in French and English, Bouchard had discovered that most of his large caucus could not speak English well enough to use it in debate.

The election of such a relatively large number of Bloquistes was the first of The Three Periods, a plan intended to lay out the way to sovereignty created by PQ leader Jacques Parizeau. Parizeau became Premier of Quebec in the Quebec election of 1994 (the second of the Three Periods).

Because the Bloc was the official opposition, it had considerable privileges over the other parties although all of its MPs had been elected in one province. For instance, Question Periods during the 35th Parliament were dominated by issues of national unity. However, the governing Liberals regarded Reform as their main opposition on non-Quebec matters. Also, in 1995, when Bouchard garnered an invitation to meet visiting US President Bill Clinton by virtue of being Opposition Leader, Reform leader Preston Manning was also given a meeting with Clinton in order to defuse Bouchard's separatist leverage.

1995 Quebec referendum

In 1995, the PQ government called the second referendum on independence in Quebec history. The Bloc entered the campaign for the Oui (Yes) side (in favour of sovereignty). The Oui side's campaign had a difficult beginning, so the leadership of the campaign was shifted from PQ leader Jacques Parizeau to Bloc leader Lucien Bouchard. Bouchard was seen as more charismatic and more moderate, and therefore more likely to attract voters.

A "tripartite agreement" mapping out the plan for accession to independence was written and signed by the leaders of the Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois, the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois and the Action dÃ©mocratique du QuÃ©bec on 12 June 1995. It revived RenÃ© LÃ©vesque's notion that the referendum should be followed by the negotiating of an association agreement between an independent Quebec and the rest of Canada. This provision was inspired by Bouchard. Parizeau had previously wanted a vote simply on independence. The difference became moot when 50.6% of voters taking part in the referendum rejected the sovereignty plan. An overwhelming "Non" vote in Montreal tipped the balance.

The day after the referendum, Parizeau stepped down as PQ leader and Premier of Quebec. Bouchard left federal politics and succeeded Parizeau in both posts on 26 January 1996.

New leaders

Following Bouchard's departure from Ottawa, Michel Gauthier became leader of the Bloc. In the wake of the referendum defeat, Gauthier proved unable to hold the fractious caucus together and resigned as leader just one year later. Gilles Duceppe, who had served as interim leader after Bouchard stepped down, became leader of the Bloc in 1997 and remained leader up until 2011, resigning after the 2011 federal election.

Gilles Duceppe announced on 11 May 2007 that he would run for the leadership of the Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois to replace AndrÃ© Boisclair, who resigned on 8 May 2007, after the poor performance in the March 2007 Quebec provincial election and internal dissent forced him to step down. Duceppe announced the next day that he was withdrawing from the race, and that he would support Pauline Marois who had also announced her intention to run.

Declining fortunes

In the 1997 federal election, the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois dropped to 44 seats, losing official opposition status to the Reform Party. The 1997â€"2000 term was marked by the Bloc's fight against the passage of the Clarity Act, the attempt by Canadian Prime Minister Jean ChrÃ©tien (himself a Quebecer who represented a strongly nationalist riding) and StÃ©phane Dion, a Quebec minister in ChrÃ©tien's cabinet, to codify the Supreme Court of Canada's 1998 decision that Quebec could not secede unilaterally.

In the 2000 election, the Bloc dropped further to 38 seats, despite polling a larger percentage of the vote than at the previous election. One factor was the forced merger of several major Quebec cities, such as Montreal, Quebec City and Hull/Gatineau. The merger was very unpopular in those areas, resulting in Liberal wins in several of the merged areas. This was still more than the number of seats the Liberals had won in Quebec. However, the Liberals won several subsequent by-elections during the life of the resulting Parliament, until the Liberals had held the majority of Quebec's seats in the Commons for the first time since the 1984 federal election. From then to the subsequent election, the Bloc continued to denounce the federal government's interventions in what the Bloc saw as exclusively provincial jurisdictions. The Bloc credits its actions for the uncovering of what has since become the sponsorship scandal.

Comeback

The Bloc continued to slide in most of the 2003 opinion polls following the 2003 Quebec election which was won by the federalist Quebec Liberal Party led by Jean Charest. However, things changed during the winter of 2003. The federalist Charest government lost popularity. Then, in February 2004, the Auditor General of Canada uncovered the sponsorship scandal, suggesting illegality in the spending of federal monies in Quebec in support of Canadian unity. As well, the Liberal government of Jean ChrÃ©tien passed party financing legislation that resulted in the Bloc receiving millions of dollars in subsidies that helped to stabilize its organization.

For the 2004 election the Bloc adopted the slogan Un parti propre au QuÃ©bec, a play on words that can be translated either as "A party of Quebec's own" ("a party proper to Quebec") or as "A clean party in Quebec". The Bloc won 54 seats in the House of Commons, tying its previous record from the 1993 campaign. For the 2006 election, the Bloc used the slogan Heureusement, ici, c'est le Bloc! ("Fortunately, the Bloc is here!"). The Bloc were expected to easily win more than 60 seats at the start of the campaign, and they did in fact take six seats from the Liberals. However, the unexpected surge of the new Conservative Party of Canada in parts of Quebec, particularly in and around Quebec City, led to the Bloc losing eight seats to the Tories. Coupled with an additional loss to AndrÃ© Arthur, an independent candidate, the Bloc recorded a net loss of three seats.

The Conservative Party won a plurality (but not a majority) of seats in the House of Commons, thus forming a minority government. There was persistent speculation as to the possibility of the Bloc forming alliances with other opposition parties to wrest the government away from the Conservatives. Duceppe, whose leadership was confirmed after the election, maintained that the Bloc would continue to co-operate with other opposition parties or with the government when this advantaged Quebec, but would not participate in a federal government.

On 2 May 2006, a poll revealed that for the first time, the Conservatives were ahead of the Bloc among Quebec voters (34% against 31%). Duceppe announced the Bloc would support Prime Minister Stephen Harper's budget that same day. By October polls showed that the Bloc was up to mid forties whereas the Conservatives fell into the teens behind Liberals in their poll numbers in Quebec.

Slight gains

The Bloc made slight gains following the 2008 federal elections as they won 49 seats, one more than the amount they had before the previous parliament was dissolved. In that election, they used the slogan "PrÃ©sent pour le QuÃ©bec" (Present for Quebec). Although they made small gains in relation to the amount of seats at dissolution, they fell by 2 seats to 49 in comparison to the 51 they received in 2006. Also, the proportion of popular votes in the province was down 4 points to 38.1%, the Bloc's lowest score since 1997.

In a speech in front of his supporters following the election, BQ leader Gilles Duceppe claimed to have achieved his objectives, adding: "without the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois tonight, Mr. Harper would have formed a majority government".

At the end of November 2008, the Bloc indicated that it would support a possible Motion of No Confidence against the governing Conservatives by the two other opposition parties, and would support the resulting Liberal-NDP coalition government at least until June 2010, without actually being part of the government.

Coalition attempt

On 26 March 2011, Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois leader Duceppe stated that Conservative leader Stephen Harper had in 2004 tried to form a coalition government with the Bloc and NDP in response to Harper's allegations that the Liberals intended to form a coalition with the Bloc and the NDP. Two months after the 2004 federal election, Stephen Harper privately met with BQ leader Gilles Duceppe and New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton in a Montreal hotel. On 9 September 2004, the three signed a letter addressed to then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, stating,

We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise, this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority.

On the same day the letter was written, the three party leaders held a joint press conference at which they expressed their intent to co-operate on changing parliamentary rules, and to request that the Governor General consult with them before deciding to call an election. At the news conference, Harper said: "It is the Parliament that's supposed to run the country, not just the largest party and the single leader of that party. That's a criticism I've had and that we've had and that most Canadians have had for a long, long time now so this is an opportunity to start to change that." However, at the time, Harper and the two other opposition leaders denied trying to form a coalition government, despite the letter written to the Governor General. Harper said, "This is not a coalition, but this is a co-operative effort."

One month later, on 4 October, journalist Mike Duffy, (later appointed as a Conservative senator by Harper in December 2008), said "It is possible that you could change prime minister without having an election," and that some Conservatives wanted Harper as prime minister. The next day Layton walked out on talks with Harper and Duceppe, accusing them of trying to replace Paul Martin with Harper as prime minister. Both Bloc and Conservative officials denied Layton's accusations.

Loss of official party status

In the 2011 federal election, in the wake of a surge of support for the New Democratic Party, the Bloc received less than a quarter of the popular vote in Quebec (and less than 6% of the national vote), lost 44 of the 47 seats it held at parliament's dissolution, and only added one seat, which had been vacated by a Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois member six months prior to the election. The seats lost included that of Duceppe, who resigned as party president and leader. It also lost all but one of its seats in Montreal. With few exceptions, the Bloc's seats were won by the NDP, though the Bloc did not suffer as severe a beating as the one it handed the PCs 18 years earlier.

By winning only four seats the Bloc failed to reach the minimum of 12 seats required for official party status in the House of Commons. MPs without official party status are treated as independents and must sit in the back row of the opposition benches. They are permitted just a few questions each week in question period and cannot sit as voting members on parliamentary committees.

Elected to Parliament in this election were incumbents Louis Plamondon, AndrÃ© Bellavance, Maria Mourani and rookie MP Jean-FranÃ§ois Fortin. When the 41st Canadian Parliament convened on 2 June 2011, Plamondon became the Bloc's interim parliamentary leader. Vivian Barbot served as interim leader and party president following Duceppe's resignation until the party's 2011 leadership election.

Leadership election, 2011

The Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois leadership election campaign to choose a permanent successor to Duceppe began on 17 September 2011 and concluded on 11 December with the election of former MP for Hochelaga Daniel PaillÃ© as party leader. Plamondon, the longest-serving member of the Commons, served as parliamentary leader during PaillÃ©'s tenure as he did not have a seat.

On 28 February 2013, Claude Patry defected from the New Democratic Party and joined the Bloc, quoting his disagreement with the New Democratic Party on the subject of Quebec sovereignty, bringing the party's total seats in Parliament up to five.

The caucus fell back to 4 MPs on 12 September 2013 when Mourani, the party's only remaining member from Montreal, was expelled for her comments criticizing the Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois government's proposed Charter of Quebec Values.

Leadership election, 2014

PaillÃ© stepped down as leader on 16 December 2013 due to health reasons. A leadership election was held the following June.

Hardliner Mario Beaulieu, a former president of the SociÃ©tÃ© Saint-Jean-Baptiste who had never been either a Member of Parliament or a member of Quebec's National Assembly, was elected party leader after running on a platform of prioritizing Quebec independence above all else. He defeated BQ Member of Parliament AndrÃ© Bellavance, who had campaigned on a platform of broadening the Bloc beyond being a coalition of sovereigntists and had been endorsed by the rest of the party's caucus.

Defections

On 12 August 2014, the caucus was reduced to three MPs when the Bloc's interim parliamentary leader, Jean-FranÃ§ois Fortin, quit the party to sit as an independent saying that the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois he had joined no longer exists and that Beaulieu had destroyed its credibility. On 25 August 2014, former interim parliamentary leader and failed leadership contender AndrÃ© Bellavance also resigned, reducing the Bloc to two MPs - one of whom, Claude Patry, has announced that he will not be running for re-election. On December 31, 2014, the party's vice president, Annie Lessard, resigned after a personality conflict with Leader Mario Beaulieu.

Return of Duceppe

With only two seats left in parliament and with the party languishing in the polls a few months before an expected election campaign, it was announced June 10, 2015 that Gilles Duceppe would be returning to lead the party into the campaign while Beaulieu would relinquish the leadership but remain party president. The party executive agreed on June 9, 2015, to split the positions of president and party leader in order to facilitate Duceppe's return. The changes are expected to be approved by the party's general council in July.

The Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois has close ties to the Bloc and shares its principal objective of independence for Quebec. The two parties have backed each other during election campaigns, and prominent members of each party often attend and speak at the other's public events. In addition, the majority of each party's membership holds membership in both parties. However, on an organizational level the parties are separate entities â€" the Bloc is not the federal wing of the Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois, nor the PQ the provincial wing of the Bloc.

Lucien Bouchard has been the leader of both parties. Michel Gauthier, once Bloc's leader, was a PQ member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1981 until 1988. Former party leader Daniel PaillÃ© was also a PQ member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1994 to 1996, and a BQ member of Parliament from 2009 to 2011.

Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois

Tuesday, July 7, 2015