Montreal – Quebec Separatist Party Suffers Crushing Defeat

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    People wait in line to vote at a polling station in Montreal Monday, April 7, 2014 on election day in Quebec. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)Montreal – The Liberal Party won Quebec’s legislative elections Monday, in a crushing defeat for the main separatist party and major setback for the cause of independence in the French-speaking province.

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    Official results Monday showed the Liberals, staunch supporters of Canadian unity, won or were leading the race in about 75 of the of National Assembly’s 125 seats, outstripping the separatist Parti Quebecois.

    Those results will allow the Liberals to form a majority government, less than 18 months after voters had booted the party from power for the first time in nine years.

    Quebec Premier Pauline Marois, who led a minority government, called the snap elections last month in the hopes of securing a majority for her PQ party. But the campaign stirred up speculation that a PQ majority would ultimately lead to another referendum on independence from Canada, an idea that has lacked support in recent years.

    Fears of a referendum galvanized supporters of the Liberals.

    Marois had tried to mute talk of another referendum on independence. She had hoped instead to make the election about the PQ’s proposed “charter of values,” a controversial but popular law that would ban public employees from wearing Muslim headscarves and other overt religious symbols.

    But the strategy backfired early in the campaign when one PQ candidate, multi-millionaire media baron Pierre Karl Peladeau, burst onto the scene with a fist-pumping declaration of his commitment to “make Quebec a country.”

    Peladeau congratulated Liberal leader and new premier Philippe Couillard.

    “We have mixed feelings. The result throughout Quebec is not the one we would have wished,” said Peladeau, who won his district.

    Couillard, a former brain surgeon and ex-Liberal health minister, has vowed to return the Canadian flag to the legislature. The PQ has always removed the flag when elected.

    With the PQ out, it means Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper won’t have to worry about a national unity crisis as he heads toward the 2015 federal election.

    Quebec has had two referendums on sovereignty. The last such vote, in 1995, narrowly rejected independence.

    Quebec, which is 80 percent of French-speaking, has plenty of autonomy already. The province of 8.1 million sets its own income tax, has its own immigration policy favoring French speakers, and has legislation prioritizing French over English.

    But many Quebecois have long dreamed of an independent Quebec, as they at times haven’t felt respected and have worried about the survival of their language in English-speaking North America.

    John Zucchi, a professor of history at Montreal’s McGill University, said the PQ defeat is a serious blow to the separatist movement.

    “I think separatism is going to go on the backburner for quite a while, perhaps a generation,” he said. “In these difficult times the people of Quebec have to face many serious issues regarding work, the economy, regarding an uncertain future and they know that separatism is not the magic solution.”

    The election outcome is also likely to bury the PQ’s hopes of passing the charter of values, which the Liberals oppose.

    Marois had hoped that the proposed law would electrify French-speaking voters in swing regions, where many feel the bill aims to preserve Quebec’s fundamental values, including the equality of men and women and the separation of church and state.

    The law would forbid government employees from wearing Muslim headscarves, Jewish yarmulkes, Sikh turbans and larger-than-average crucifixes. It would also prohibit citizens from covering their faces while receiving public services, such as applying for driver’s licenses, for the purpose of identification.

    Protests against the proposal have drawn thousands of Muslims, Sikhs and Jews to Montreal’s streets to denounce what they call an affront on religious freedom.

    Pierre Martin, a political science professor at the University of Montreal, said the charter is just not a priority for the Quebecois.

    “This issue was actually very low on the priorities of Quebec voters. It was actually a very weak issue for the Parti Quebecois to campaign on,” Martin said.

    The Liberals were previously haunted by allegations of corruption that tainted their nine years in power. But Couillard hammered away at the referendum issue and framed the election as a choice between uncertainty and stability.

    Marois became Quebec’s female premier in Quebec’s last elections in September 2012, a vote that was marred by a deadly shooting.

    At a victory rally for Marois, a man opened fire outside the Montreal theater, killing a stage hand and wounding another. The masked gunman, wearing a bathrobe, was shown on television ranting and shouting “The English are waking up!” in French as police dragged him away. Richard Henry Bain has been charged with first-degree murder.


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    3 Comments
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    TexasJew
    TexasJew
    9 years ago

    Sounds like Crimea. Let France come in and take over like Putin did.

    Deveee
    Deveee
    9 years ago

    This was so sweet.
    Marois losing her own riding was the icing on the cake.

    Jews breathe a big sigh of relief.

    charliehall
    charliehall
    9 years ago

    While I object to Americans interfering in the electoral process in other free countries, now that the results are in from today’s election in Quebec I must say that I am very glad that I will be able to continue to be able to wear my yarmulke when I visit.