Quebec separatist leader targets Martin, Harper in Canada election debate
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and opposition leader Stephen Harper, his Conservatives ahead in the latest polls, raged against possible Quebec separation in a televised election debate late on Tuesday.
”It’s not right to say that it’s a crime to promote federalism in the province of Quebec,” Harper said, rebuffing attacks by separatist Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe.
”The prime minister of Canada must promote federalism in Quebec. We intend to do so and it is not a criminal act to promote Canadian unity, with Quebec included.”
Martin echoed the sentiment, while downplaying a scandal involving kickbacks to his Liberal Party from Quebec advertising firms which received lucrative government contracts to promote federalism in the province.
”Mr Duceppe does not want federalism to work in Canada,” Martin said.
The French-speaking province may face another referendum on independence from Canada in the next few years.
The Bloc, with a stranglehold on some 55 of 75 seats in Quebec, has kept the issue fresh in voters’ minds during this federal election campaign. There are 308 seats nationally up for grabs.
During the debate, Duceppe accused all federalist parties of duplicity in a 1995 referendum in which Quebecers narrowly rejected independence.
”The Liberals and Conservatives are both in the same camp, the camp that said no to Quebec,” Duceppe said.
The recent rise in popularity of the Conservatives in Quebec, mostly at the expense of the scandal-tainted Liberals, has made Harper a new target for the separatists and the Liberals.
Harper tried to stay focused on his party’s policies as he did in an English debate the previous night, positioning his Conservatives as an alternative to the Liberals in Quebec, where his party currently hold no seats.
Any national party that breaks through in Quebec is likely to gain support in seat-rich Ontario too, as it would be seen as a defender of Canadian unity.
Martin, trying to hold onto about 20 seats in Quebec, painted Harper as having conservative social values that contrast sharply with moderate socialist views of a majority of Quebecers while accusing the Bloc of being helpless spectators in Ottawa.
”Mr Duceppe is powerless because if Mr Harper became prime minister and wants to send soldiers to Iraq, the Bloc could not stop him. If Mr Harper wanted to take part in the US missile defence shield, Mr Duceppe couldn’t stop him. Mr Harper said he would backtrack on the Kyoto Protocol. The Bloc could do nothing,” Martin said.
”Quebec can no longer simply watch the parade go by,” he added.
Meanwhile, Jack Layton, also hoping for a breakthrough in Quebec, pitched his New Democratic Party as an alternative to the scandal-plagued Liberals and the Conservatives. – AFP
