If it is possible, Quebec nationalism is becoming even more intellectually inconsistent. It has always attempted to sell its followers on its ability to achieve two diametrically opposed outcomes at the same time — insisting that it can win Quebec freedom from Ottawa’s control, while at the same time maintaining Quebec’s transfers and other subsidies from Canadian taxpayers. That, in a nutshell, is what “sovereignty association” has always been about. Monday, 50 young Parti Québécois (PQ) members published an open letter in the separatist-leaning Montreal newspaper, Le Devoir, calling on party leader Pauline Marois to push harder and faster for separation at a time when fewer Quebecers favour breaking away from Canada than at any time in the past generation.
In the background of this current PQ schism is an implicit threat: Cater to the aspirations of the party’s hardcore nationalists or they will entice Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe to leave federal politics and come back to Quebec to replace Ms. Marois, who, by the way, does not want to give up her post. Mr. Duceppe is the most popular active political leader in the province — federal or provincial — and sovereigntists cling to the hope that he could revive momentum for their movement, which since its narrow loss in the 1995 referendum has never come as close again to fulfilling its dream of an independent Quebec.
The irony is that Mr. Duceppe and his federal BQ party are at one and the same time the most disloyal party in Ottawa and the party most dependent on federal taxpayers.
The BQ have time and again made it clear they are ready and willing to tear Canada apart. Mr. Duceppe is a sovereigntist folk hero because he has never wavered from his belief that “Canadian federalism can never be changed to accommodate Quebec,” unlike Ms. Marois who has, since becoming PQ leader in 2007, toned down her separatist rhetoric. She now proposes shelving a third referendum while seeking new powers from Ottawa.
Duceppe’s stated commitment to separation was always why the proposed 2008 coalition between the Liberals and NDP was such a dangerous idea. It would have had to be held in place by a man and a party determined to exploit the first opportunity to ruin the nation.
While the Tories rely for about 40% of their funding from taxpayer subsidies, the NDP 60% and the Liberals 70%, the Bloc does almost no independent fundraising. Its annual political budget derives over 90% of its revenues from the $2-per-vote grant registered parties receive from taxpaying Canadians. Mr. Separatist Hero would be unable to turn on the lights in his party’s offices were it not for the generosity of Joe and Jane Canadian.
The philosophic confusion among sovereigntists is also apparent in their revulsion for Ms. Marois’s go-slow approach. It is nothing more or less than Lucien Bouchard’s “winning conditions” strategy. Mr. Bouchard remains the most popular figure in Quebec, even among sovereigntists. Yet during his tenure as premier — when momentum for sovereignty remained high — he was never able to arrange another vote on separation because he could never find a time when the stars lined up for a win. Ms. Marois is merely confronting the same reality faced by the lauded Mr. Bouchard. Yet, the knives are out for her.
Still, none of this is new for sovereigntists. Their inconsistency is their most consistent trait.
When Brian Mulroney was prime minister, for instance, the Quebec wing of his caucus dictated that half of all defence spending had to occur in Quebec. During the Canada Round of constitutional negotiations in the early 1990s, there were demands from Quebec that part of the National Archives and other national museums be given to Quebec, should it decide to leave. Nationalists insisted all of Air Canada and any other federal asset residing in the province would belong to an independent Quebec, but not part of Canada’s national debt. Jacques Parizeau even had some unusual calculations during the 1995 referendum about how Quebec was bleeding money every year to the rest of Canada, despite being by far the largest recipient of transfers and equalization.
The current PQ troubles are nothing new. Quebec nationalism has been an idea at war with itself for 40 years.
National Post