Simon Deschamps
The Bloc Québécois wasn’t supposed to be around for very long. Twenty-five years after being formed as a temporary movement, it has become the institutional voice of Quebecers, say academics and former members.
“The Bloc is caught in a negative spiral,” said Michel Sara-Bournet, a professor of political science at University of Montreal. “The less it talks sovereignty, the less people are interested in this question. But the more it talks about it, the more people flee the party.”
In the past 25 years, the Bloc Québécois have entered eight elections. The party’s biggest achievement at the polls happened in 1993 when they became official opposition. The “Orange Wave” struck in 2011 and the party was almost wiped out, with just four MPs elected. Then the Quebec map shifted to a red tint during the last election in 2015.
“Quebecers wanted change and when they realized nothing has changed over the last 20 years, and the willingness to knock over the Harper government, they thought they had better chances to do it with Layton and Trudeau,” said Sara-Bournet, to explain the descent of the Bloc Québécois.
The desire for Quebec sovereignty hasn’t been as strong in recent years. A Radio-Canada/ Crop poll conducted in 2014 found that 60 per cent of the province’s population would vote “No” to a future referendum.
Before losing its popularity with Quebec voters, there was lots of enthusiasm on June 15, 1991 at its launching assembly. More than 900 people gathered at CEGEP Tracy, a post-secondary school. This is where the Bloc Québécois became an official party. Lucien Bouchard was confirmed as its first leader.
“So we are all in the parking lot and thinking we will form a political party, live an historical moment, and we don’t have the keys,” recalled Joseph Facal, who had attended the event as the president of the Young Péquistes, an association for the young members of the Parti Québécois. He arrived early that morning to participate in the policy-making process, and the organizers of the event didn’t have the set of keys to enter the building.
Facal, now a political analyst for Quebec media outlets, says the party was organized by improvising. The goal of the Bloc was to assist in the sovereignty process and disappear when it would have happened. “To quote Lucien Bouchard, the Bloc’s success would be measured by its brevity,” he said. When sovereignty wasn’t achieved after losing the 1995 referendum by a slim margin, the Bloc faced a dilemma: disappearing or staying?
It stayed, and progress was made in the coming years. The return of the Quebec skills training program is one of the gains lobbied for by the Bloc. The province fought for this for 33 years. The Bloc also stood up for farmers when the Quebec agriculture model was threatened by international trades negotiation. They presented a motion adopted by the other parties. As well, the Bloc challenged the others parties to make them recognize a fiscal imbalance toward the province. About, 3.3 billion went back into Quebec government’s coffers.
Louis Plamondon, who were part in the foundation of the Bloc and MP for it since 1993, said that the party “still had to fight for Quebec’s interests in Ottawa where the interests of Canada always take priority”
He is proud of what the Bloc Québécois accomplished over the years, and is convinced more than ever of the necessity for sovereignty and hopes for another opportunity.