The Bloc Québécois is a Canadian federal political party that is devoted to nothing Quebec sovereignty.

mission

The Bloc's mission is to promote, in the Canadian House of Commons, the consensuses of the National Assembly of Quebec?, which current leader Gilles Duceppe? acknowledges as being sovereign over the judgement of his own party). At present Jean Charest?, Premier Ministre du Quebec? is a federalist with prior associations with Conservatives.

policy

The Bloc avows goals of social democracy? and has in recent years been considered to practice left-wing politics?. However there remain critics who claim the Bloc is not left wing at all but merely a temporary coalition that finds it useful to appeal to voters left of what would be seen as the political centre in (the rest of) Canada. Also, by promoting such ideals, it tends to reduce resistance of Canadians who share such ideals, who are in the majority.

supporters

When it arose in the 1990s, the BQ was supported by francophone?s mostly in rural areas. Its support in Montreal? and Quebec City? has been relatively weak, thought to be due to the multicultural? ethnic? makeup of those areas. In the Quebec sovereignty referendum, 1995, only 5% of Quebec immigrant?s voted "yes". By 2005 however those numbers had risen to above 20%, thought to be due to Bill 101?, many immigrants including from Somalia? and Haiti? or Latin America? being educated in French. See Bill 101 generation?.

Also, in 1995 there were few public corporate supporters of sovereignty, while by 2005 there were many - most large corporations in Quebec had at least one open sovereigntist on their board.

history and mission

The BQ was founded in 1990 by Progressive Conservative ("PC") and Liberal party members who left those parties to form the Bloc, the party's first leader was former PC cabinet minister Lucien Bouchard?. Bouchard led the BQ to win 54 seats in the House of Commons in the Canadian federal election, 1993 - just enough seats to form Her Majesty's Official Opposition? and become Leader of the Opposition?, a major embarassment for federalists.

This was following the failure of federal government and the provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution? according to what was titled the Meech Lake Accord?: a set of proposals that would constitutionally entrench "recognition" of Quebec as a "distinct society?", bilingualism?, and other changes that some (notably, Quebec's premier of the time, Robert Bourassa?, and Canada's Progressive Conservative Prime Minister of the time, Brian Mulroney?) thought would strengthen the Canadian federation.

This was one of two significant splits from Mulroney's party, the other being the Western-based Reform Party of Canada? of Preston Manning, that reduced it to 2 seats in that same Canadian federal election, 1993 and eventual political extinction.

Following the (bare) failure of the Quebec secession referendum, 1995?, Bouchard stepped down from the leadership of the party to lead the Bloc's Quebec provincial counterpart, the Parti Québécois?. The leadership of the party was assumed by Michel Gauthier? for just over a year.

under Duceppe

The party's current leader, Gilles Duceppe?, assumed the leadership of the party on March 15, 1997 and led it into the Canadian federal election, 1997.

In that election the BQ under Duceppe won only 44 seats, losing its Opposition status to the Alberta-based Reform Party of Canada (led by Preston Manning, son of longstanding former Alberta Premier Ernest Manning?, whose Social Credit Party of Alberta remained in power there for decades). In the Canadian federal election, 2000, still under Duceppe, the party won fewer seats again: 38. Since that time, several of those seats were lost in federal by-election?s.

Some BQ MPs did not seek nomination for the Canadian federal election, 2004 and it was widely speculated that BQ support would fall as a result of a fall in support for Quebec separation. What changed that was the Sponsorship Scandal and subsequent Gomery inquiry which Bloquistes were easily able to turn into a general condemnation of what that inquiry called a "culture of entitlement?". It was particularly useful to whip up the base? of the BQ, since the sponsorship involved was federal visibility at Quebec-based events, which were intended to reduce support for separatism.

surprises in 2006

Given the party's reason for being, some had expected the BQ's popularity to continue to dwindle as Quebec's interest in secession fades and increase as it rises. However, apart from the BQ, the Liberal Party of Canada in Quebec? had no formidable competitor until the surprise turn of the Canadian federal election, 2006, in January 2006 the Conservative Party of Canada passed the Liberals in polls for the first time. This was a nasty turn for the Bloc:

BQ candidate?s had planned to continue filling the vacuum left when voters decided not to re-elect Liberal MPs in that province. Their whole campaign in that election was based on the belief that voters had no choice but the Bloc if they rejected the Liberals.

Mario Dumont? of the provincial ADQ? had also endorsed the Conservative Party of Canada as a better alternative than the Bloc for ex-Liberal voters. This too was surprising as the ADQ had participated in setting the ground rules for the Quebec secession referendum, 1995? as a full partner party to the PQ and was generally considered to be quite sympathetic to separation. Also that party had opposed many moves by Jean Charest?'s Liberal Party of Quebec? that they considered to be anti-labour and neo-conservative. It was speculated that Dumont was simply bolstering his position with the federal government and considering becoming a Quebec Conservative MP, potentially blocking Jean Charest from the job or otherwise interfering with the LPQ/PQ duality that rules Quebec today.