Earlier this week, the Bloc Quebecois caucus met in Quebec City and, at its conclusion, leader Gilles Duceppe spelled out what it will take to get the BQ to support the Conservative government this spring when the Tories table Budget 2011: about $5 billion in stuff for Quebec.
The Conservative spin masters promptly fired up the Alerte-Info-Alert ‘bot with the following talking points to be used by their MPs. I reproduce it for you below. One of the things that caught my eye, particularly in the wake of the Conservative television ads of last week that suggest Duceppe is “too much of a Montrealer” are the lines from the Info-Bot that specifically suggest the BQ’s position has no appeal to “rural Quebecers” nor to “des régions du Québec.” Conservatives won’t come right out and say it, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the party is pretty much writing off any electoral chances in Montreal. I’m sensing that this kind of line helps them defend their seats in and around Quebec City and in the Saguenay and may help them poach a seat or two from the Bloc in rural Quebec, mostly in the Eastern Townships but also in the Gaspé region. In the 2008 election, for example, the Tories aimed, without success, at upsetting BQ MP Robert Bouchard in Chicoutimi and at André Bellavance in Richmond-Arthabaska. I suspect they may be looking at those ridings again, as well as perhaps France Bonsant in Compton-Stanstead and Christian Ouellet in Brome-Missisquoi.
As Harper’s 2008 election campaign also took him up to Val D’Or, one might assume the Tories saw some polling that suggest their message might appeal to enough voters in Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou to steal it from the BQ’s Yvon Levesque. It did not in ’08 but who knows about the next one. (That’s a picture, above, that I took of the scene that greeted Harper in Val d’Or. Notably, I saw more protesters at Harper events in Quebec during 2008 campaign than I saw anywhere else in Canada.)
Meanwhile, as former Liberal turned TV pundit Jean Lapierre famously quipped during the 2008 campaign, the only red signs one saw in Quebec outside Montreal were stop signs — a funny way of saying that the Liberals were largely a non-existent electoral threat anywhere outside Montreal. It’s my sense — although I’d be quite pleased to be corrected — that the Liberals still have much work to do outside Montreal and a few ridings near Ottawa.
All of which means, the next federal election campaign in Quebec will actually be two very different campaigns with different messages: The BQ will be on defence in both but in the Montreal/Ottawa area it will be BQ vs Liberals vs NDP while in the rest of the province it will largely be the BQ vs the “nouveaux bleus”.
Here’s that info-Bot Alert from the Conservatives:
The Phony Defence of Quebec’s Interests
Today, the Bloc Québécois held a press briefing with the excuse that they wanted to present the budget demands of their party. But Quebecers won’t be fooled!
By presenting budget demands that, according to them, amount to $16 billion ( Bloc Québécois News release, January 26, 2011), Gilles Duceppe and his MPs are just looking for an excuse to vote against the next federal budget, and thus force an election that Quebecers don’t need. That’s their only objective.
This is also why the Bloc Québécois, on two occasions, in 2009 and in 2010, VOTED AGAINST the Economic Action Plan put forward to help Canada weather the worst global recession since the Great Depression. When it comes to the economy, the Bloc Québécois has no lessons to teach our Conservative Government.
Before the global economic crisis even began, we took action to help create jobs, keep taxes low taxes for the middle-class families and seniors, to improve the Employment Insurance Program and to help businesses pull through the crisis. Our actions produced results in all regions of Quebec and, the Bloc Québécois VOTED AGAINST them every chance it could.
Furthermore, even before the global economic recession hit Canada, our government took action by reducing taxes on job-creators. Gilles Duceppe pointed out today that low taxes have been helpful to stimulate job creation. However, the Bloc Québécois VOTED AGAINST lower taxes in December 2007. This is yet another example of the glaring opportunism and hypocrisy by Gilles Duceppe’s party.
The Bloc Québécois does not care about the priorities and values of rural Quebecers.
The Bloc Québécois serves neither the interests of Quebecers and Quebec regions. It only serves its own interests.
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La fausse défense des intérêts du Québec
Aujourd’hui, le Bloc a tenu un point de presse en prétextant vouloir présenter les demandes budgétaires de la formation politique. Mais les Québécois ne sont pas dupes !
En présentant des demandes budgétaires qu’ils chiffrent à 16 milliards de dollars (communiqué de presse du Bloc, 26 janvier 2011), Gilles Duceppe et ses députés ne cherchent qu’un prétexte pour rejeter le prochain budget fédéral et déclencher des élections dont les Québécois n’ont pas besoin. C’est leur seul objectif.
C’est pour cette même raison que le Bloc A VOTÉ CONTRE, à deux reprises, en 2009 et 2010, la mise en œuvre du Plan d’action économique qui visait à combattre la pire récession mondiale depuis la grande dépression. Mais notre gouvernement conservateur n’a pas de leçon à recevoir du Bloc en matière d’économie.
Nous avons agi dès le début de la crise économique mondiale pour aider à stimuler la création d’emploi, pour réduire les impôts de la classe moyenne et des personnes âgées, pour bonifier le programme d’assurance-emploi et pour aider nos entreprises à traverser la crise. Nos actions ont produit des résultats dans toutes les régions du Québec et, chaque fois qu’il en a eu la chance, le Bloc A VOTÉ CONTRE nos mesures.