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January 18, 2001

For those unaware souls out there who are either blind, deaf and dumb or American (essentially the same thing), Lucien Bouchard resigned last week as Premier of Quebec. He agreed to stay on until a replacement is found, but after that, he's outta here.

My initial reaction was "Great, he's given up!" Followed immediately by "Damn, he was so much fun to make fun of!" Then I started to really think about the circumstances surrounding his resignation.

Firstly, he was always a shrewd politician and the excuse he used to resign demonstrated that he hasn't lost this ability. People in office are often remembered not by what they do best, but by what they do last. Take Bill Clinton, whose eight-year term in the U.S. will be most remembered by the Monica Lewinsky affair. Or Nixon, whose name automatically brings up Watergate. Closer to home, Jacques Parizeau's term in office in Quebec is best remembered by his ill-advised comments on "money and the ethnic vote" spoken on the night of his referendum defeat.

Bouchard knows this full well, and so he chose to use the Yves Michaud affair as an excuse for resignation. Bouchard is a man whose record in office involves massive cuts to healthcare and education, launching both systems into chaos, language law embarrassment, and the support of completely undemocratic and unpopular municipal mergers. However, now he will forever be remembered as the person who resigned on principle, angry at the intolerance shown by some party members towards minority groups. The Jewish community applauded his decision to condemn Michaud and step down, but no-one at all informed could possibly believe that this was the real reason Bouchard resigned. It was a convenient excuse, that's all. The real reason is that had he not resigned, the hardliners in his party would have put increasing pressure on him and he would have been forced out eventually. Better to attach it to a cause.

The next obvious question is, now what? Federalists are hailing his resignation as good news. Surely, with someone less charismatic as leader, the PQ won't be able to woo many soft nationalists to the sovereignty cause. And maybe Jean Charest and the Liberals even have a chance at winning the next provincial election. Or then again, maybe not . . . they're sure to win the popular vote and lose the election, thanks to our ingenious ridings system.

But of course, as my sister astutely pointed out, this is probably better because people like to blame the party in power for everything. Support for separation would probably increase with a Liberal government, because the PQ wouldn't have the opportunity to shoot itself in the foot every five seconds. Certainly by looking at the last twenty years, this is what happened historically.

There's a flip side, though. Whoever succeeds Bouchard will have another two to three years in office, at least. I shudder to think about what the province will be like with someone like Bernard Landry at the helm.

The leadership contest in the PQ will likely favour whoever can convince members that he or she is the most hard-line. We're bound to see a stiffening of the language laws, a stepping up of the harassment of the Anglophone and Allophone communities, and a breakdown of tolerance in general. At least Bouchard was enough of a politician to keep the hardliners in check, temporarily anyway. Certainly, to win party leadership, the next Premier will have to promise a referendum within this mandate. It will surely be defeated, but we're talking a waste of billions of dollars and lots of time and energy. Fun stuff.

Some days I wonder why I put up with Quebec politics at all. Then I realize that it's much less scary than the thought of living in Ontario or the States. Oh well, I guess the shtick you know is better than the shtick you don't. Or something.