Of beautiful days with seizures, internal: 5 key moments of the existence of the Bloc québécois

Archives QMI

Olivier Charbonneau

Wednesday, 28 February 2018 13:27

UPDATE
Wednesday, 28 February 2018 13:27

Look at this article

The Bloc québécois saw a new crisis. On Wednesday, seven of the ten elected members of the training sovereigntist have announced that they will sit as independent mps.

Despite this new crisis, the current party leader, Martine Ouellet, has no intention of leaving his post.

Here are 5 key moments of the existence of the Block:
Foundation of the party

Lucien Bouchard, then minister of the Environment in the conservative government of Brian Mulroney, has dumped his party in the spring of 1990 because he was dissatisfied with the position of his caucus in Quebec.

A few days later, the Meech lake Accord failed, and several other mps, liberals like conservatives, including the late Jean Lapierre, joined Bouchard to take the first steps in the foundation of the Bloc québécois.

Archives QMI

The same summer, Gilles Duceppe was elected in a by-election, becoming the first member of parliament bloquiste elected to the House of commons.

But this is only the following year, in June 1991, the party has officially taken shape, during its founding congress, at the cégep de Sorel-Tracy.

Official Opposition

The Bloc québécois has happened in the elections of 1993 with the wind in the sails. Another failure of the constitutional divide the Canada. The Charlottetown Accord had been rejected by the majority of Canadians a year earlier.

It is as well as Lucien Bouchard managed to elect 54 deputies to the October 25, 1993. However, the surprise came later in the evening, when the Canadians have discovered that the Bloc québécois would form the official opposition.

Referendum of 1995

The separatist movement was raring to go. In Quebec, the Parti québécois took power in 1994. A referendum on the sovereignty of Quebec was organized, and the Bloc québécois would be an important player in the ” Yes ” camp.

ARCHIVES QMI

The leader, Lucien Bouchard, has been called upon to deliver keynote addresses and to negotiate with politicians, canadians, americans and French, in particular. Its members were also of the party, on the ground, alongside fellow pq members.

On 30 October 1995, the separatist movement lost its bet. The camp of the No won the referendum with a slim majority of 54 288 votes. Jacques Parizeau resigned the next day, after controversial comments.

Bouchard left the Bloc to take over as head of the PQ.

The time of Gilles Duceppe

Gilles Duceppe has been leader of the Bloc québécois for more than 14 years. He took over the reins of the party in 1997 and was kept until 2011, when the delegation of the Block has increased from 49 mps to just four. He himself has been beaten in his own riding. During the time of Gilles Duceppe, the Bloc québécois has held a majority of the 75 electoral districts in Quebec.

Archives QMI

The heads follow one another

The turbulence is placed at the Block since the collapse of 2011, the year in which Quebec was swept by the wave orange. Daniel Paillé, Mario Beaulieu, Gilles Duceppe, and Martine Ouellet, have tried to straighten the party, without success.

In February 2018, seven of the ten members bloquistes resign with a bang, claiming a difference in fundamental vision with Martine Ouellet on the role of the Bloc in Ottawa.

Boris Proulx – QMI Agency