It is said to be uncouth to speak ill of the dead so I won't comment further on the passing of the separatist stalwarts other to say that I did not care for either of the men, both enemies of anglophones and ethnics.
But the two deaths underline the fact that no new generation of significant leaders is emerging because anyone who advocates passionately for Quebec sovereignty is shot down rather cruelly by a movement that no longer believes in itself.Poor Martine Ouellet was drummed out of the Bloc Quebecois for being too much of a sovereigntist, advocating for militancy in pushing the independence theme. Now Martine was a wacky political figure, but her commitment to sovereignty was admirable and it seems that she was one of the few in the BQ caucus willing to fight to the bitter end for a principle, even if it meant going down with the ship.
Her treacherous BQ comrades in Ottawa have long given up the notion of militating for independence, preferring to advocate for Quebec within Canada instead, thus betraying their raison d'etre.
I guess life is too comfortable and with lucrative pensions growing fatter by the day, who can blame them for taking the cowardly way out.
All this puzzles me because support for sovereignty remains significant in Quebec. In the last provincial election, a combined thirty-three percent of the electorate voted for the Parti Quebecois and Quebec Solidaire. It's true that each of these votes wasn't necessarily a vote for sovereignty, but it certainly gives an indication that even in these dark days of the sovereignty movement, support remains significant.
The PQ has seen a string of less than stellar leaders, ever since the disaster that was the PQ government led by Pauline Marois, a failed tenure in power that had voters abandoning the party in droves.
But the PQ re-build in opposition never happened with the bizarre Pierre-Karl Péladeau doing perhaps the most damage to the brand. Many PQ supporters (social progressives) held their nose in supporting PKP because his star power promised a winning future. But the unstable Péladeau abandoned his leadership rather abruptly, either because of his nasty marriage breakup or because he was plainly unsuited to the task. Péladeau has a history as a rich spoiled brat, an absolute ruler over at Quebecor and someone who obviously could not abide by cooperating with the hoi-polloi of the PQ party.
The earnest yet underwhelming Jean-François Lisée was left to pick up the pieces and like Humpty-Dumpty, all the king's horse and all the king's men couldn't put the PQ back together again.And so sovereigntist forces face a daunting and frustrating road ahead with most pur et durs having thrown in the towel of political activism long ago.
In fact, those who militate ferociously for Quebec separation are seen, even by those sympathetic, as throwbacks, as if they were members of the flat Earth society.
Perhaps the losing has gone on too long for the faithful and while Quebecers may support the notion of sovereignty, they no longer have the strength to fight for it, considering the battle a lost cause.
Over on Vigile.quebec, the last sovereigntist bastion of opinion, the website mourned the loss of their chief editorialist, ex-politician Richard Le Hir, whose denunciations of all things Canadian were a comforting staple for its constituency of silver-haired over-the-hill militants. His loss will be impactful.
Surprisingly or perhaps not surprisingly, under the section that discussed the PQs past and future was a list of aggregated stories which underlined the utter demoralization and despair of the movement.
Writer after writer bemoaned the fact that the PQ was coming to the end of the road with graphic descriptions of its demise.
The indefatigable sovereigntist Louise Beaudoin described the PQ electoral debacle as a 'slaughter."
For the moment, there is no next-gen sovereigntist leadership and any movement cannot survive without leaders.
Up to now, leaders of the sovereigntist movement had expectations that their travails would or could lead to an independent Quebec. It is what drove them.
Today those hopes are irrealistic and any aspiring leader has to understand that his or her work will lead nowhere.
It isn't a situation which can attract anyone of substance, so clearly, the writing is on the wall, a message written by sovereigntists themselves.
Today those hopes are irrealistic and any aspiring leader has to understand that his or her work will lead nowhere.
It isn't a situation which can attract anyone of substance, so clearly, the writing is on the wall, a message written by sovereigntists themselves.
