Bloc Québécois’ time is over

The following is an excerpt from an editorial in the Winnipeg Free Press:

Martine Ouellet plans to soldier on as leader of the Bloc Québécois, the parliamentary branch of the separatist Parti Québécois, even though seven of the 10 BQ members of Parliament quit the caucus last week because they could not abide her leadership.

This looks very much like a political party in its death agony, recalling the long and messy decline of Social Credit under Réal Caouette in the 1970s and ’80s.

The sooner the BQ dissolves, the better for Canada and Quebec.

There is a role for a Quebec nationalist party in Parliament. Quebec nationalism is alive and well, even though interest in separating from Canada has declined. François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec, which seeks to be a tiny bit more nationalist than the ruling Quebec Liberals, has been performing well in opinion polls and byelections.

Ouellet’s misadventure, however, shows that a parliamentary branch of the separatist movement is an absurdity. Ever since the failure of the 1995 independence referendum, BQ members of Parliament have been haunted by the question: What are we doing here?

Quebec nationalist thought has helped make Canada what it is today — reluctant to go to war, receptive to European culture, sensitive to the needs of cultural minorities.

Once the BQ reviews its own vital signs and ends its death agony, the way may be clear for a new nationalist movement to arise and start work on a new agenda for Quebec within Canada.