The tea towel is still burning in the Bloc québécois

Photo courtesy of CPAC

QMI agency

Sunday, 25 February, 2018 23:15

UPDATE
Sunday, 25 February, 2018 23:15

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OTTAWA – The relationship between the leader of the Bloc québécois Martine Ouellet and the elected officials of the party sovereignists in Ottawa comes to know another shock, as the parliamentary leader of the Bloc announced that he was relinquishing his post, on Sunday evening.

“I think it is essential that there is a bond of trust particular, a kind of communion of thought, between the chief and his house leader, and unfortunately, this is not the case. After several unsuccessful attempts due to our inability to communicate and our differences of views on the parliamentary work in Ottawa, I have observed that it is impossible for me to properly fulfill the responsibilities of a leader,” said Gabriel Ste-Marie by news, on Sunday night.

The member for Joliette has not specified exactly what were these differences, but he has expressed his vision of the role of the Bloc in Ottawa.

“The Bloc Quebecois is a separatist party that must make the promotion – of course ! – and it is my belief the more profound, as I still believe that our first responsibility to the House of commons is to defend the interests of Quebecers and carry the consensus of the national Assembly. It is showing the negative effects of federalism on the lives of the people and by the demonstration that only pro-independence groups defend without compromise the interests of Quebec that we are advancing our cause,” he added.

Last June, Gabriel Ste-Marie had made a public release with the other six of the ten elected representatives of the Bloc in Ottawa against Martine Ouellet, who had been elected head of the party less than three months earlier. It has, however, continue to sit on Québec as an independent, with as objective to appear at the federal general elections of the fall of 2019.

“Our relationship of trust in Martine [Ouellet] is assigned, and it’s going to take quite a bit of work to fix it,” he said, alongside six of his colleagues. Force is to admit that their relationship has never recovered this first attack. These deputies said he was not consulted, while the new chief believed that they refused to recognize its legitimacy, she who had been elected by the members of the party following a leadership race.

During the crisis in June 2017, the new leader of the Bloc had been forced to put on the door the head of the cabinet Louis-Philippe Dubois, that she had named without consulting his caucus, as it would have leaked information in the media “with the avowed purpose” to harm a member of his own party, Rhéal Fortin. She was then excused for the action taken by Mr. Dubois. She had also had to change its parliamentary leader Xavier-Barsalou-Duval by Gabriel Ste-Marie, who has just left, less than a year in office.