Blanchet dismisses sovereignty as a distraction

Bloc Québécois Leader YvesFrançois Blanchet mocked his opponents on Sunday for bringing up the sovereignty boogeyman on the day before the vote.

Blanchet recalled the day before that his party’s platform “affirms that the national must again consider giving itself all the attributes of sovereignty.”

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, both losing ground in Quebec according to recent polls, pounced on the statement to bring up sovereignty less than 24 hours before voting day.

First, Blanchet attacked Trudeau directly, accusing him of being too late to bring the sovereignty question up. “If Trudeau wanted to talk about sovereignty, why didn’t he bring it up before?” Blanchet asked.

When a journalist asked if the Bloc was a sovereignist party, he responded: “Are we really at the point of asking that question 24 hours before the vote?”

Later, at another stage of his day, he mocked his adversaries by evoking an invasion of tarantulas and the landing of aliens following the election of a large number of Bloc MPs. More seriously, he repeated that sovereignty is not an issue of this campaign.

“If we’re convinced that one day Quebec should embrace all the attributes of sovereignty, that’s not the mandate of this election,” he said. “We’ve said that for five weeks. It hasn’t changed today.”

Blanchet campaigned Sunday in Chambly-Beloeil, Laval, Rosemère, Lavaltrie and finally Trois-Rivières.