By Canadian Press

Bloc Québécois as official Opposition? Leader says Canadians ‘don’t have to fear us’

Dec 27, 2024 | 4:00 AM

OTTAWA — Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet says he’s staying modest about the prospect of his party forming official Opposition in the next federal election, though it would be a “spectacular” result.

“I refuse to see the election in terms of pride or a trophy, or to claim to be part of history,” he told The Canadian Press in a year-end interview.

As Justin Trudeau’s minority government teeters and polls point to a possible collapse of the Liberal vote, Blanchet said he’s staying focused on earning the confidence of Quebecers. “Quebecers will give us a mandate, and we’ll carry it out responsibly by always repeating to ourselves, I hope, that we have to live with modesty,” he said.

The most recent projections from poll aggregator Canada338.com show that if an election were held today, the Conservatives led by Pierre Poilievre would win a crushing majority of 232 seats. The site suggests the Bloc is running a distant second with 45 seats — but ahead of the Liberals with 39, the NDP with 25, and the Greens with two.

If such a scenario were to come to pass, the anti-monarchist, Quebec-focused sovereigntist party would become His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, and Blanchet would get the keys to Stornoway, the Opposition leader’s official residence in Ottawa.

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“If that happens, I can only say that we respect institutions … while having already said that the Senate should be abolished, that the monarchy in Canada should be abolished,” he said, adding, “but we are not there to break the toys.”

Blanchet said his party would carry itself with a “positive and constructive attitude,” while continuing to advocate for Quebec sovereignty.

“We can expect that, when an issue affects all of Canada, including Quebec, we will do our job,” he said. “When an issue affects just Quebec, or almost just Quebec, we’re right in our business.” The party may be “more discreet,” however, on issues that impact the rest of English Canada, he said.

Blanchet said his party would continue to speak only French in the House of Commons. But when asked if he had a message to English Canada, he said “people don’t have to fear us.”

He said the party’s position on many issues are well-known, “and we’re not going to pull the ideological rabbit out of the hat.” What’s good for Quebec is also, often, good for Canada, he added. As examples, he cited his party’s recent battles to raise Old Age Security for younger seniors, to ensure supply management is protected in trade agreements, and to remove an exemption for religious speech in the section of the Criminal Code dealing with hate speech.

Blanchet laughed when asked if he’d prefer a medium-sized Bloc contingent that holds the balance of power or a larger number of MPs in a majority parliament. “An interesting trap question,” he said. Either scenario can be worked to his party’s advantage, he said, adding that he is focused on getting as many MPs elected as possible.

“A very strong Bloc Québécois delegation forces a government, any government, to respect what Quebec wants,” he said. “And the proof is in front of us: Justin Trudeau’s government didn’t respect Quebec and it’s possible they’ll find themselves with a historically low number of seats in Quebec in the next election.” Quebec, he said, “is making them pay the price.”

The Bloc Québécois has formed the Official Opposition only once before, in 1993, after Lucien Bouchard left Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives to found the party.

The Bloc, in its first general election, won 54 seats, behind Jean Chrétien’s Liberals with 177. The incumbent Conservatives were all but wiped off the board, going from a majority government to finishing fifth with two seats.

Trudeau’s minority government seems all but certain to fall now that the NDP has announced that it will vote to bring down the government. Blanchet, who has voted against the government since the fall, said he would not support the Liberals under any circumstances and confirmed he would also vote to head for an election at the first opportunity.

That means he’s resisting the “clear temptation” to help the government survive long enough to allow his bill C-282, which protects supply management on dairy, poultry and eggs, to get adopted in the Senate.

There’s a lot more at stake in an election than just supply management, he said. “It’s the whole of trade, the whole of the economy, the whole of international relations, the whole of the treatment of the most disadvantaged, housing, homelessness.”

Blanchet says he doesn’t regret letting the Conservatives paralyze the work of the House of Commons during the fall. Unblocking Parliament without getting his demands met would have made his party as weak as the NDP, he said.

“If we want to be respected, we have to act accordingly,” he said. “The government didn’t deserve our help.” The government, Blanchet said, spent the fall saying privately that they wanted to negotiate without any concrete action to suggest they were serious about doing so.

If there is one thing he would do differently, he said, it would be to be more patient. Politicians, he said, should better explain their thinking rather than “trying to have the killer line of the day.”

“Our work doesn’t mean anything if people don’t understand us,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2024.

Michel Saba, The Canadian Press