Blanchet hoping to cement revival of Bloc
Leader of surging party looks forward to `playing cat and mouse with Mr. Trudeau'
With many races too close to call Monday evening, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-françois Blanchet was hoping to outperform expectations.
Surfing a wave of nationalist outrage launched by a question in the English leaders' debate, the head of the Bloc set his sights on holding and even adding to the 32 seats his party won in 2019.
As soon as election results started rolling in from Gaspésie—les Îles-de-la-madeleine, part of which is in the Atlantic time zone, a tight race between the Bloc's Guy Bernatchez and Liberal Diane Lebouthillier, most recently the Minister of National Revenue, was in evidence.
But by 9:50 p.m., Lebouthillier had carved out a 500-vote margin, with 40 of 223 polls reporting.
Blanchet said during the campaign that his dream was to win a majority of Quebec's 78 seats, but he'd be happy just to beat his party's performance from two years ago.
What started as a sleepy campaign for the Bloc roared to life on Sept. 9, when moderator Shachi Kurl opened the English leaders' debate by asking Blanchet why he supported “discriminatory” laws like Bill 21, Quebec's secularism law, and Bill 96, a retooling of the French Language Charter.
The question ignited a firestorm, with Premier François Legault thundering that it was an attack on the Quebec nation. The National Assembly denounced it as Quebec-bashing and demanded an apology.
On Sunday, Blanchet visited three Liberal ridings in the Eastern Townships, saying he was eager to take on Justin Trudeau in those pivotal battlegrounds.
“I can't wait to play cat and mouse with Mr. Trudeau in Estrie,” said Blanchet, looking relaxed and energized at the close of the campaign. “I'm still not sure who is going to be the cat and who is going to be the mouse.”
In Sherbrooke, where Liberal Élisabeth Brière eked out a victory in 2019 — defeating two-term New Democrat Pierre-luc Dusseault by 609 votes — Blanchet rallied support for Bloc candidate Ensaf Haidar, the wife of Saudi prisoner of conscience Raif Badawi.
As votes were being counted Monday night, much attention was focused on suburban ridings where the Bloc came roaring back in 2019, more than tripling its 2015 seat count.
Opinion surveys showed the sovereignist party comfortably ahead in 23 districts, stretching from rural Quebec to La Pointe-de-l'île in Montreal's east end, according to the poll tracker 338Canada.com.
The Bloc was also likely headed for victory in four other ridings — Rivière-des-mille-îles, Montarville, Beauport—côte-debeaupré—île d'orléans—charlevoix, and La Prairie, the poll tracker said.
But in about a dozen ridings considered a toss-up between the Bloc, Liberals and/or Conservatives, the counting was expected to stretch until late Monday or beyond.
Those ridings include Chicoutimi—le Fjord in the Saguenay-lac-st-jean region, which has flipped between the Bloc, Liberals, NDP and Conservatives, and Thérèse-de-blainville, where Liberal Ramez Ayoub hoped to win back the seat he lost in 2019 to Bloquiste Louise Chabot.
In Châteauguay—lacolle, Patrick O'hara of the Bloc was hoping to unseat Liberal Brenda Shanahan, who beat the Bloc's Claudia Valdivia by a mere 639 votes in 2019. In Shefford, former Liberal MP Pierre Breton hoped to oust the Bloc's Andréanne Larouche, who beat Breton by 898 votes two years ago.
At the Pierre-péladeau Centre on de Maisonneuve Blvd. E. Monday evening, the anticipation was palpable as party members waited for Blanchet to arrive.
The English debate controversy breathed new life into the Bloc's hopes of growing its base, pushing up its support in the polls from about 25 per cent at the start of the campaign to about 30 per cent, approaching the 32.4 per cent of the popular vote it received in 2019.
The Bloc's surge dashed Trudeau's hopes of a path to a majority through Quebec.
Despite doling out goodies like $6 billion in federal cash over five years for additional daycare spaces in Quebec, Trudeau ran afoul of Legault for treading on provincial jurisdiction by announcing he would introduce national standards for seniors residences, tragically affected by COVID-19. Trudeau also did not rule out aid for groups wishing to challenge Bill 21.
On the same day as the English debate, Legault called on Quebecers to kick the Liberals out of office and vote for a Conservative minority, urging them to beware of the centralizing Liberals, New Democrats and Greens.
Blanchet, a former Parti Québécois cabinet minister who became Bloc leader in January 2019, led its surprise comeback two years ago after eight years in the political wilderness. Quebec's largest federal party from 1993 to 2011, it dropped to four seats and lost its official party status in the NDP'S Orange Wave of 2011. The Bloc won only 10 seats in 2019.
A fan of the Astérix comic books, Blanchet has been dubbed Panoramix, the Druid magician, for coming up with the magic potion that revived the party's fortunes. He managed to hitch his wagon to Quebec's popular premier while downplaying its ties with the moribund Parti Québécois.
Blanchet horrified environmentalists during the campaign by coming out in favour of Legault's $10-billion “troisième lien” (third link), a controversial road tunnel under the St. Lawrence River from Lévis to Quebec City.
The Drummondville native lives in Shawinigan, but represents the South Shore riding of Beloeil— Chambly.
On Sunday, Blanchet met with local officials in Shawinigan concerned that the Bloc's demand for a single tax return to Revenu Québec could endanger the jobs of 2,000 Canada Revenue employees there. Blanchet assured them he would protect the jobs.