And now,we continue our election watch with the Bloc Quebecois.
The Bloc Quebecois' history begins a decade ago, in 1990, when Conservative Lucien Bouchard leaves the Tories and becomes an independent. A few other Tories do the same and after a union of these separatists independents, Lucien Bouchard is chosen leader and later choses the name Bloc Quebecois and other separatist MPs join the band. A year later, the Bloc becomes a real party and will have candidates in every riding of Quebec. At the 1993 General Election, the Bloc becomes the Official Opposition. After Bouchard left for the Provincial Parti Quebecois in 1995, Michel Gauthier replaces him as Leader of the Opposition. Gilles Duceppe later replaces Gauthier. In the 1997 election, the Bloc is the third largest party in parliament.
Gilles Duceppe was born in Montreal in 1947. He studied political science at the University of Montreal and has a bachlor of Arts at the Collège Mont-Saint-Louis. He was first elected to Parliament in 1990 for the Laurier-Sainte-Marie riding and is the first elected under the Bloc banner. He is relected in 1993 and 1997. In 1993 he was the critic for Indian Affairs, Multiculturalism , National Defence, Immigration, and Veteran Affairs.
The Party has not much of a real policy actually has totally no policy except that of Sovereignty. It's practically useless to write this article. There is no way this party can have a Majority government since there are only candidates in Quebec but can achieve its goals by being the Official Opposition such as it was in 1993 and that is the reason they don't have a common policy on health care, the economy or anything unless it has direct connection with an eventual split from Canada although Ducceppe recently said he would support a minority government on certain issues other than Quebec-only related issues.
So why exactly does the Bloc want Sovereignty for Quebec? Because it believes it can happen and it would end the constitutional deadlock between the founding people, Anglophones and Francophones. They believe also, that it's what most Québeckers want when close to half its population voted for separation in 1995. The Bloc has established what they believe would be a Quebecois Nation which would take care of its economic, cultural and social issues while still keeping close ties with Canada.
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