Miscellaneous
Jacques Parizeau, former premier of Quebec and leader of the Parti Quebecois (PQ), has become a caricature of bigotry. Just when the present premier, Lucien Bouchard, is trying to convince investors from abroad that all is well and tolerant in his land, Parizeau is smiting all about him with the swagger stick of invective, claiming, in effect, that a vote from a Jew, a Greek, or an Italian is not a real vote in Quebec.
Jacques Parizeau recently informed the public of his discovery that Quebec's survival as an independent nation is assured as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Quebec's trade with the United States, he explains, is five times greater than with the rest of Canada. Although an independent Quebec would probably face reprisals from the rest of Canada, Parizeau notes that such reprisals would be impossible inside a zone that includes the United States. In supporting free trade, Quebec was requesting that the United States protect it from English Canada, he stated.
Recent revelations by the former premier of Quebec indicate how close the province came to independence. Before the 1995 referendum, Jacques Parizeau assured Quebecers that after a majority yes vote, an offer of partnership would be made to the rest of Canada and that only if negotiations on this offer were to fail over a period of about a year would Quebec move to a unilateral declaration of independence. In May 1997, however, on the occasion of the launch of his book Pour un Quebec souverain, Parizeau remarked that such a declaration could have taken place within a week or ten days after a victory for the yes side. It would appear that this was part of his plan for a quick move to sovereignty. Parizeau was following former French president Valery Giscard d'estaing's advice to declare independence almost immediately, in return for which France would have recognized the new state, promising to pressurize the United States to follow suit.
The only objective of Jacques Parizeau's political career was Quebec's sovereignty, and he seemed unable to grasp why his compatriots did not accept this necessity. Parizeau frequently gave the impression that the path to sovereignty was simply a series of strategic advances and tactical retreats, which his opponents always equated with lies and deceptions. Parizeau's admission that he considered making a unilateral declaration of independence in the event of a Yes vote in the October 1995 referendum follows that pattern--Parizeau would have perceived such a declaration to have been a strategic advance backed by the result of the referendum. Federalist opponents claim that the admission is further proof that all sovereigntists tried once again to dupe Quebecers.
Personal antipathy and ideological differences are dividing Quebec's sovereigntists just badly as Canadian federalists. The splits in Ottawa are obvious and go beyond the ideological. Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Reform Party leader Preston Manning give an impression of disliking each other, Manning does not get on with Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest, and Charest, in turn, has a cold relationship with Chretien. Sovereigntist leadership hopefuls, meanwhile, are also at war with one another--Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard, for instance, are totally at odds--and rank-and-file members are similarly on bad terms. The real problem may be that the notion of sovereignty has taken on multiple meanings. Some people think a sovereign Quebec should keep economic and political ties with Canada, whereas others see the future nation as being characterized by big government, even bigger taxes, and no links to anyone.
The long-awaited summit on Quebec's economic future proved to be a bumpy ride for the Parti Quebecois government. A newspaper article written by former premier Jacques Parizeau raised questions about the perceived abandonment of sovereignty and social democracy by Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard's government. Social discord in the form of several hundred protesters burning an effigy of Bouchard also resulted from the government's cost-cutting initiatives. Bouchard was forced to counter the perception of his government's pro-business leanings because some union representatives threatened to walk out of the proceedings unless measures to soften the social effects of deficit-cutting were introduced. Nonetheless, there were some summit successes, such as the agreement to create 72,000 jobs over three years.
Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau will likely leave office amid suspicion that he and some of the Parti Quebecois members closest to him at least ignored a developing patronage scandal within his government in order to avoid a negative impact on the outcome of the province's referendum. Last September, Quebec's Liberal Opposition claimed that at least some of the 25 research contracts that were handed out early this year by Quebec's now-dismantled restructuring department, headed by Richard Le Hir, had been awarded without tender to companies connected to senior employees working for Le Hir's department. Quebec auditor general Guy Breton's December 5 report on the affair uncovered a clear case of conflict of interest within the restructuring ministry as well as what he described as a possible network of patronage and fraud due to the close association between Le Hir's deputy minister and consultant Claude Lafrance. Moreover, Breton revealed that members of Parizeau's entourage knew about the potential dangers as early as last June.
Part of a cover story on Canada's referendum vote. Canada's referendum vote has provoked tension between French-speaking and minority communities in Quebec. More than 90 percent of Quebecers who either speak English or belong to so-called cultural communities voted to keep Quebec in Canada. Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau publicly blamed the sovereigntists' defeat on "money and the ethnic vote." His statement has prompted charges of racism, and other sovereigntists are attempting to heal wounds and build confidence within the province's cultural communities.
Part of a cover story on Canada's referendum vote. Politics in Quebec City have been shaken by the resignation of Jacques Parizeau as Parti Quebecois president and premier of Quebec. Parizeau announced his intention to step down shortly after the referendum vote on Quebec's independence. Lucien Bouchard seems poised to take over Parizeau's posts, although he must persuade his reluctant wife, Audrey Best, to agree. The article discusses the status of the two other leading contenders to succeed Parizeau--Pauline Marois and Bernard Landry--and describes the challenges that Quebec's next leader will encounter.
Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau cannot manage to light much of a fire under his campaign to take his province out of Canada. In St. John's last week, in his effort to sell the idea of independence and the notion that Quebec is destined to be humiliated as long as it remains in Canada, Parizeau came up short. Seeking to persuade his fellow premiers that trade links mattered more than ties of national unity, he merely succeeded in annoying the rest of the country's provincial and territorial leaders.
At the recent annual conference of Canada's premiers and territorial leaders, held in St. John's, Nfld., a dispute arose over whether an independent Quebec could still participate in an agreement on interprovincial trade signed last year. Quebec's Jacques Parizeau and his nationalist partners in the coming referendum campaign argue that economic realities would force the rest of Canada to maintain its pattern of trade and business dealings with an independent Quebec. However, other premiers tried to make it clear that in the event of a Yes vote and Quebec sovereignty, all bets would be off. The dispute overshadowed other issues with which the nine federalist premiers contended, including reform of social programs.
Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau is accusing Ottawa of conspiring to "gang up" on his province to thwart the Parti Quebecois government's campaign for independence. He cites as his proof "secret" papers filched from the federal bureaucracy. The 16-page draft document, labeled a "Preparatory Strategy" for the "Autumn Referendum 1995," consists primarily of obvious proposals. They suggest that Ottawa concentrate on the dangers of separation; sow doubts about the probability of a political and economic union between Canada and an independent Quebec; and try to avoid making Quebecers feel rejected. Parizeau took issue with the proposal that the federal government coordinate plans with provincial premiers and consider "the possibility of a common statement" at the premiers' upcoming annual conference. Parizeau claims that federal officials will use the meeting to pressure the premiers into talking about Quebec instead of focusing on dismantling interprovincial trade barriers.
Political cartoonists and the press in Canada have exploited the rumor that Jacques Parizeau said at a recent meeting that Quebecers would be trapped like "lobsters thrown into boiling water" in the event of a Yes vote in a sovereignty referendum. The controversy caused by Parizeau's possible digression will clearly not help the Yes side, but the degree to which it will hurt the Yes side is uncertain. Reaction last week was overwhelmingly negative.
Last week in Quebec City, Parti Action Democratique Leader Mario Dumont, Premier Jacques Parizeau, and Bloc Quebecois Leader Lucien Bouchard signed a pact that could lead to more support for Quebec independence. The agreement calls for Dumont to join the leaders of the two mainstream separatist parties in the campaign for Quebec independence. In return, Parizeau and Bouchard promise that the eventual referendum question will include an offer of a new political and economic association with the rest of Canada. Dumont's importance to the independence cause stems from the fact that although he only holds one seat in the province's National Assembly, his party commands 10 to 15 percent of Quebec voters. Parizeau and Bouchard are hoping that these voters will be enough to boost the separatist cause from the current support of about 40 percent of the electorate to an overall majority.
English Canada has responded coolly to Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau's unity offer and remains opposed to the idea of separatism in any form. Parizeau announced that he intends to propose an economic and political association between an independent Quebec and the rest of Canada before a referendum on Quebec sovereignty. His proposals, however, seemed to have succeeded in mending a potentially devastating rife between hardline separatists like himself and so-called sovereignists, who had urged the premier to make the separatists' option more palatable to Quebecers. The bigger change for Parizeau is convincing Quebecers and other Canadians that he can be trusted to negotiate in good faith the terms of union should he be given a mandate to do so.
Premier Jacques Parizeau hoped that the Quebec government's roving commissions on the future of the province would jump-start the sovereignty movement, but the hearings have generated little public excitement. The hearings, which are designed to transform sovereignty from a partisan Parti Quebecois platform into a broad-based popular movement, allow ordinary people to air their concerns about independence in an atmosphere controlled by the sovereigntists. The commissions did not spread the undiluted separatist message that many observers predicted, however, and gaffes by Parizeau's ministers took attention away from the operation. For example, Parizeau's long-standing claim that Quebec will be fiscally responsible on its way to independence and as a sovereign country was undermined when Finance Minister Jean Campeau said that an independent Quebec might refuse to pay its share of the Canadian debt.
Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau enjoyed a warm welcome when he visited France last week in search of support for his province's separation from Canada. During the four-day visit, Parizeau used every occasion to present the case for Quebec sovereignty. Knowing that the French government would not, and could not, publicly take sides on the issue, he asked only that the French agree to quickly recognize an independent Quebec should the upcoming referendum result in a mandate for sovereignty. Both Philippe Seguin, the president of the French National Assembly, and Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, the overwhelming favorite to succeed Francois Mitterrand as president in May, appeared to offer that support. Parizeau also scored well with the French media, which gave much more coverage to his visit than to Prime Minister Jean Chretien's visit to Paris last December.
Instead of allowing Quebec's citizens to decide whether to support separation, Premier Jacques Parizeau plans to unilaterally declare victory by having the National Assembly pass an edict that "Quebec is a sovereign country." Only as an afterthought will the province's voters have a chance to express their feelings about what, under Parizeau's plans, will by then be a done deal. Parizeau's gambit is nothing but a desperate ploy by a bush-league Machiavelli. If there is one thing Quebecers have proved over and over again, it is their collective wisdom of voting in their own best interest. No one, least of all the leader of the Parti Quebecois, has yet been able to demonstrate a single advantage of nationhood for the people, as opposed to the politicians, of Quebec.
Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau appears prepared to go to great lengths to sell his separatist cause. This week, he sent a copy of his draft bill on sovereignty to some three million Quebec households, using $660,000 of the taxpayers' money to do so. That move drew criticism from all but the most diehard supporters of the province's separatist movement. Such controversial attempts to gather support for Quebec sovereignty may be in response to sluggish support for the cause. A Leger & Leger poll released last week showed that 36 percent of Quebecers favored sovereignty, while 42 percent were opposed and 22 percent were undecided. The article discusses resistance to Quebec independence from native peoples as voiced by the Assembly of First Nations, Parizeau's public appearances and news interviews in both the U.S. and Canada, and other controversial tactics he is using to promote the separatist cause.
Several parallels can be drawn between Rene Levesque and Jacques Parizeau. About a decade ago, Levesque, who was a Quebec Liberal cabinet member, became a separatist. His plan, however, involved only a quasi-independence, and Quebec voters turned it down. Similarly, Quebec Premier Parizeau wants the province to be independent of Canada without forsaking some of the privileges that accompany being part of Canada. He wants, for instance, to keep the Canadian currency and the Canadian passport.
While Prime Minister Jean Chretien was in Europe for international meetings, several of his caucus members and advisers panicked and began advocating cooperation with Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau's plan for secession. Such talk ceased as soon as Chretien returned and opposed the plan, but it underlined the fragility of federalist consensus when he is not present and served as a reminder that Ottawa's constitutional experts, lobbyists, and interest groups--who are eager to benefit from the process of secession--are never far from the crisis.
Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau's plan to lead Quebec out of Confederation was met with strong criticism. The referendum process outlined by Parizeau mirrors the Parti Quebecois program in that it provides a blueprint for an independent Quebec, including assertions that Quebecers would be able to keep Canadian citizenship, Canadian currency, Canadian economic links, and Canadian-sponsored membership in international trading arrangements. What dismayed even many of those normally sympathetic to the separatist cause was the method Parizeau chose to coax Quebec voters to endorse his plan: a vast public consultation meant to provoke debate exclusively on defining how Quebec should become independent without ever asking why the goal is necessary, or even desirable. The article discusses opposition to Parizeau's plan by native groups in Quebec and Parizeau's reliance on international law and opinion to support Quebec's claim to independence.
Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau's government and his Parti Quebecois are clearly floundering. With a few notable exceptions, the PQ government, which took power on Sept. 26, has had a largely dismal record marked by a series of embarrassing gaffes on the part of senior ministers. The party is split by internal divisions over the wisdom of proceeding with an independence referendum at a time when public support for sovereignty is highly volatile. Meanwhile, the much-publicized effort to draw moderate nationalists into a nonpartisan coalition of forces to fight on the Yes side in the referendum is going nowhere. Nevertheless, Parizeau appears determined to carry out the referendum, and the sooner it is held, the better off he will be. The vote may be held as early as next June if the government's strategy can build the type of momentum needed to attract support from beyond the ranks of committed separatists.
Premier Jacques Parizeau's Parti Quebecois (PQ), which won the support of 44.7 percent of Quebec's population in the Sept. 12 election, is betting that a majority will vote in favor of independence within a year if it is proposed by a government they approve of. One of Parizeau's top priorities is the decentralization of Quebec's government. To this end, he has introduced 14 new "regional delegates" who he says will voice their regions' concerns and prevent his cabinet ministers from "implementing centralizing policies thoughtlessly." The delegates are also to promote sovereignty for Quebec. Parizeau has a clear strategy on this matter: He hopes to achieve enough with the powers of a province that the public will be spurred to dream of what Quebec could achieve as a full-fledged country. The article compares the PQ government under Parizeau to the first PQ government, which came to power in 1976, and discusses several members of Parizeau's new cabinet.
The writer reflects on Jacques Parizeau's pre-election promise of holding a referendum on Quebec's separation "about eight to ten months" after the election, noting that both he and Lucien Bouchard know there will be no referendum at all in 1995.
The victory of the Parti Quebecois (PQ) in Quebec's recent elections was somewhat dampened by the strong showing of the Liberal party, led by Premier Daniel Johnson. The PQ, led by Jacques Parizeau, successfully swept the Liberals from power after nine years, winning 77 of the 125 seats in the Quebec National Assembly. Nevertheless, the Liberals fared better than expected, confounding the predictions of the PQ and pollsters by winning 47 seats in various regions of the province. Moreover, the federalist Liberals captured 44.3 percent of the popular vote, compared to 44.7 percent for the separatist PQ. Despite their defeat, the Liberals will make up a solid block of opposition in the provincial legislature, and Johnson will be poised to lead the fight against the nationalist intentions of Parizeau and his followers. The responses of federal and provincial leaders, the Canadian public, and the international financial markets to the Quebec elections are discussed.
Quebec separatist Pierre Bourgault's column in The Globe and Mail illustrates the gulf of misunderstanding that divides Quebec and the rest of Canada. In one column, he accused Globe and Mail readers of hating both himself and Parti Quebecois candidate Jacques Parizeau. Several readers responded that they do not hate either Bourgault or Parizeau but that they do hate what the separatists are trying to do to Canada. The separatists are probably right when they argue that the rest of Canada does not understand the Quebecois or what they mean by a "distinct society," but Quebecers are no better informed about the rest of Canada. Quebec newspapers, for example, do not station reporters in Western Canada or Toronto, whereas major Canadian papers have established bureaus in Quebec.
If Jacques Parizeau and his Parti Quebecois (PQ) win the upcoming election in Quebec, that province will certainly secede from Canada. Some have predicted that a PQ victory will merely start another round of constitutional negotiations, but that is unlikely, given the explicit separatist agenda spelled out in the PQ platform. The proposed referendum would not ask Quebecers whether they want a separation from Canada but rather ask them to approve a constitution for a new republic. Even before the referendum, a PQ government would seize control of matters formerly under federal control, beginning with tax revenues. The terms of the rejected Meech Lake Accord were much more reasonable, and its demise in 1990 reenergized the separatist cause that now appears close to victory.
The Parti Quebecois (PQ), led by Jacques Parizeau, is favored to win Quebec's Sept. 12 provincial election, but voters are growing uneasy about the party's separatist stance. According to a Leger & Leger poll released on Aug. 26, the PQ holds a lead of five percentage points over the Liberals. In the same poll, however, 60 percent of respondents opposed sovereignty. These doubts about Quebec's ability to survive alone may help enable the Liberals to come from behind, if they exploit it to the fullest. An editorial predicts that a PQ victory will not lead to immediate separation but rather initiate another round of negotiations between federal and provincial officials. Such talks could keep Canada together, provided all parties show flexibility.
In keeping with the often antic tone of the campaign leading up to Quebec's provincial election on Sept. 12, an ongoing debate has erupted over a proposed televised debate between Liberal Party leader and Premier Daniel Johnson and Parti Quebecois (PQ) leader Jacques Parizeau. Such a debate, if it occurs, would mark the first time in 32 years that the leading contenders for the premiership in Quebec have debated on television. However, the PQ and the Liberals argued acrimoniously last week over the structure and content of the debate. Even though 4 major debate themes have been agreed upon, the PQ now seems unenthusiastic about continuing negotiations on the final form of the debate. Most observers agree that the front-runnning PQ has little to gain and much to lose in the debate, while the Liberals are counting on a strong performance by Johnson to win needed francophone votes.