Gilles Duceppe Announces: “The Party That will Determine the Fate of Stephen Harper is the Bloc Quebecois”

Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Quebecois, went into Harper’s track record and made the case for Quebec separation at his first visit to Dawson College in Montreal Quebec.

“It’s more obvious than has before that Quebec has no place in Canada.”
Gilles Duceppe, Leader of the Bloc Quebecois

While attacking Prime Minister Stephen Harper for wanting to scrap gun control, aid the oil industry and misspend more money, Duceppe made the pitch that separation is a “win-win situation” for Quebec and Canada and that “all the provinces are committed to [keeping] the six million dollars in their pockets.”
Duceppe clarified that Quebec wasn’t part of the Canadian constitution and that the “50% + 1” approval that is needed in the Quebec National Assembly exists. He also said that he wants to mimic the European Union.

“I’m not against Anglophones.”
Gilles Duceppe, Leader of the Bloc Quebecois

Duceppe announced that French would be the national language of a newly sovereign Quebec. This statement isn’t reassuring for the Anglophone crowd that he is trying to convince. With Bill 101 dictating how everything in Quebec is conducted, Anglophones already know what it is like to be the Francophone minority in Canada: discriminated in the workplace, left with little to no representation, and assimilated into French culture. While Duceppe claimed that Anglo-Quebecers would have “the same rights as before,” he completely opposed the concept of having a multicultural society.
After announcing a platform that would encompass Quebec separation, Duceppe concluded, “The party that will determine the fate of Stephen Harper is the Bloc Quebecois,” and “If Quebec [was] taken out of the picture, the rest of the country is Conservative.”

“The party that will determine the fate of Stephen Harper is the Bloc Quebecois.”
Gilles Duceppe, Leader of the Bloc Quebecois

Canada, nor Quebec, will gain from splitting up the opposition more than it already is. The Conservatives won their ridings by a narrow margin and exploited a Liberal/NDP/Bloc Quebecois vote split. Situations where Conservative candidates got 34%, Liberal opponents got 27-32%, NDP rivals got 18-27%, and the rest of the vote to minor parties mounted Conservative victory.

If the Liberal and NDP votes in a riding were merged, the candidate would have an 11-25% lead over the Conservative candidate.

Let’s not forget that 66% of the seats in the House of Commons belong to opposition MPs.

Out of the 75 seats that are up for grabs in Quebec, only 10 belong to Conservatives. If the 49 ridings that voted for the Bloc Quebecois in the last election voted Liberal, the new dynamic would see the Liberals within striking distance of a minority government, missing only 15 seats.
With the New Democrats looking desperately for ways to avoid a spring election, they prove to Canadians that they will only mimic what people scream to stay in power. The NDP won’t be able to form a government unless they capture every Liberal seat which would be impossible since the Liberals are a mature party. If people don’t want a Conservative government, the split in the opposition can only be minimized by voting Liberal.
With the media always touting the possibility of a Conservative majority, and propping up the Tories, the Bloc Quebecois are more desperate in building support for Quebec independence in an effort to save face, prove relevance, and protect their culture. Don’t forget that if Harper enacted the controversial policies that he stands for in this minority government, he wouldn’t last a day in the polls. So Harper waits and asks for a majority government, and Duceppe fears the impact on Quebec – and has every right to.
Harper doesn’t connect with Quebec for it is one of the most government subsidized and socialistic places in the world. Harper would replace all our social programs, from Medicare to Welfare, with powerful military, multi-billion dollar super prisons, and corporate tax cuts.
The provincial Parti Quebecois has destroyed the separatist movement with its never-ending rhetoric. But the biggest obstacle may be the Bloc Quebecois itself. While their ideal is to see an independent Quebec, they get their salaries and pensions from the Canadian taxpayer, which will effectively end when they are no longer Canadian. As Duceppe said, “We will do what suits our needs.”