Martine Ouellet turns the page on a tough year

Photo Guillaume St-Pierre
Martine Ouellet has not yet elected to Ottawa, and announces that she will be leaving the national Assembly with the election in quebec, scheduled for 2018. In an interview in the end of the year given in the Journal, she looks back on this first year at the helm of the Block.

Boris Proulx

Tuesday, January 16, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Tuesday, January 16, 2018 01:00

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OTTAWA, After having welcomed a new chief in march, survived a near-mutiny among his troops in June and faces a defeat in heart-breaking in the by-election in Lac-Saint-Jean in October, the Bloc québécois is recovering from a difficult year. Its leader, Martine Ouellet, predicts, however, a renewed popularity for his party in 2018, as a result of the abandonment of Quebec by Justin Trudeau.

Is it going to hurt the Block ?

Not at all. When I look at the NDP, I find that the Block will not hurt much. It is clear that there has been a rise in the Block, as seen in the Lac-Saint-Jean. And me, I am convinced that by 2019, we will send a contingent much stronger in Ottawa. The demonstration is made, folder after folder, that any party federalist or canadianiste [sic] does not defend the interests of Quebec. For example, even if the liberal Party has 40 deputies [in Quebec], including the prime minister, they do what for Quebec ? Issues such as the Davie, Netflix, Bank, infrastructure, immigration, NAFTA, etc

Yet, Justin Trudeau is still first in the polls in Quebec. How do you explain this ?

The honeymoon is a little long. It’s like, how is it that Donald Trump has been elected to the United States ? Beyond the comedy, beyond the smiles, you realize that, finally, the liberal Party is like the conservative Party in the environment and many of the other folders. If he has the need to satisfy the rest of Canada, Justin Trudeau will not shy away from sacrificing Quebec, it is clear, net and precise. I think that its popularity will wane and that the people will realize that ultimately, it is all well and good comedy, but this is not what actually improve the quality of life in Quebec.

After your arrival, the Block was almost tearing the last year. What have you learned from this episode ?

We took the time to talk, I think it has paid off. We put the things on the table, and we met this summer. I think it was well concluded, the page is turned. There is an entire team work that is done. It is sure that with a finish like this, in full parliamentary session, everything is done in fast-forward. We took a few steps back this summer, that I had not had time to do on my arrival, and we had a unanimous agreement.

With hindsight, it was a problem to have kept your seat in the national Assembly of Quebec and to be a head to Ottawa ?

I’m going to finish the transparlementarisme in October 2018, it is already announced. I think that to have a vision of the two parliaments, it is essential to realize the independence of Quebec. All the powers we need to become self-employed are not in Quebec, but they are all in Ottawa. It is rich enough to become independent, it has all the expertise it already has delegations-general to the international, it was already Revenu Québec, which collects taxes. When I look at the Canada manage Phoenix, and all of that, I tell myself that it doesn’t have to be embarrassed and that there are management problems in Canada too.

In 2017, you have denounced the rise of a “left-wing religious” in Ottawa. That is what it is ?

These are all decisions where one puts the religion above the safety or above the democracy. When religion becomes more important than all other subjects, and that the other decisions are based on religious beliefs. In Quebec, when we say that we want the State to be secular, that we are not in agreement with the [accommodating] on religious grounds, it is intolerable to be called a racist for these reasons. It is almost racism on their part. It has the right to have the desire to have a secular State, and it is the vision of a large majority of Quebecers. The canadian vision of multiculturalism, it is a vision that is extremely ghettoïsante [sic]. Quebec is, in the world, one of the companies most welcoming. You ask the people from immigration, and this is really the case. It must be said, and it is necessary to stop autoflageller in Quebec.

How the option sovereignist does it have a future ?

I think the good news for the independence is that the baby boomers will become seniors independence. He should go to find the most young people, who are more international. But to project themselves into the international, it is better to do this through a province or a country ? Me, I think it would be a lot of benefits to project from Quebec. You see, in the new generations, the Y or the milléniaux, confidence in the future. I think we will be able to make an alliance, multi-generational for the first time.

► The Journal presents to you his third meeting with the opposition leaders, federal early this year. Keep an eye on our pages in the coming days for the interview editorial with the prime minister Justin Trudeau.