(Extraits de: "Bouchard faces enemy within", Ottawa Sun, 19.6.98)
Bouchard's strategy has always been to fudge ideological and party labels. His theme song is addressed to le peuple quebecois -- to all the people, rather than any sub-division. That has meant projecting an image of moderation, of consensus, of solidarity, rather than sharpening lines of division.
Legault is the opposite. She is more ideologue than political scientist or politician. She has always been a hard-liner on any issue which touches on the French language or secession.
She first came to public attention by publishing a book -- based on her MA thesis in political science -- in which she portrayed Quebec's English-speaking people as colonialist oppressors who had practised apartheid against French-speaking Quebecers until the 1977 Charter of the French Language put an end to their rule.
She presented the Anglos as descendants of the conquerors on the Plains of Abraham, and warned that the current reincarnations of Wolfe would do everything in their power to regain their ascendancy unless they were held down by strong laws. The book was amateurish, full of errors, and showed a vindictive mental set in its author. But it was greeted as a revelation by Le Devoir and earned Legault a temporary position as a columnist with the Gazette -- she seems to have an unresolved love-hate relation with her oppressors.
Legault has been a constant critic of Bouchard from the left. She attacked his measures to reduce Quebec's deficit. She found him half-hearted about secession and soft in dealing with the dangerous Anglos.
For Legault, any prominent Anglo is a hard-liner in disguise. The only difference between a Gretta Chambers and a William Johnson is in the degree of hypocrisy.