Is it not awful when you come out of retirement to help the old gang and nobody cares? Former and future Bloc Quèbècois Leader Gilles Duceppe’s second coming is falling a little flat. He is particularly concerned that the national (read ‘English’) media are ignoring him. The problem is that you have to have some understanding of Quebec politics to really appreciate the pratfall that Gilles is heading for in the fall election.
The normally savvy Bloc leader must be getting old. He should realize that he can do little to save the Bloc. Its day is done. The younger Quebecers see the Bloc as a failed experiment. At best Gilles could drain enough votes from Thomas Mulcair’s New Democrats to help Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. That could hardly be Duceppe’s intent.
And yet, he started from day one of his return attacking fellow Quebecer Thomas Mulcair. He complained that Mulcair had not done enough in Ottawa to further Quebec interests. Mulcair is a soft target. Duceppe knows that the Leader of the Opposition has a responsibility to the entire country.
But realistically it was Jack Layton’s Orange Wave that reduced the Bloc to a rump and sent Duceppe into retirement. With the pension Duceppe is drawing from Ottawa as a former party leader, it is hardly likely that he came back because he needs the money.
You always have to laugh at the puzzlement of many national media—particularly those who are bilingual—that Duceppe rarely says the same thing or the same way in English as in French. It is something you get used to around the world meeting people who speak multiple languages. They tend to be freer in what they say in the less familiar language than they are in their mother tongue. While Duceppe is quite facile in English, he actually does not care as much about what he says. It makes him quicker with an off-the cuff response and more humorous in English.
Where Duceppe will shine in the real election in the fall will be if he gets invited to any English-language television debates. (Duceppe and Elizabeth May will both be looking for those possible opportunities.)
Meanwhile in the phony war over the summer, all Duceppe can do in English is lob the occasional verbal grenade over the Quebec-Ontario border to see if he can draw fire.
While Prime Minister Harper will obviously ignore the Bloc, it is Mulcair and Trudeau who will have to do some strategizing. They might be able to ignore much of what he says in French but they will have to hear what he is saying to the rest of the country. They will have to be ready with the right put-downs.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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