Dion & Harper in the House of Commons (Jacques Parizeau)

Harper reads part of Jacques Parizeau comment on the coalition.

Jacques Parizeau - In the 1989 election, Parizeau's first as PQ leader, his party did not fare well. But five years later, in the 1994 election, they won a majority government. Parizeau promised to hold a referendum on Quebec sovereignty within a year of his election,and despite many objections, he followed through on this promise. In the beginning, support for sovereignty was only about 40% in the public opinion polls. As the campaign wore on, however, support for the "Yes" side grew larger. This growth halted, however, and Parizeau came under pressure to hand more of the campaign over to the more moderate and conservative Lucien Bouchard, the popular leader of the federal Bloc Québécois party. Parizeau agreed, and as the campaign progressed, lost his leadership role to Bouchard.

During the 1995 referendum he caused an uproar when it was reported by columnist Chantal Hébert in the La Presse newspaper that despite the guarantee of an offer of partnership with the rest of Canada before declaring sovereignty following a "Yes" vote, Parizeau had told a group of foreign diplomats that what mattered most was to get a majority vote from Quebec citizens for the proposal to secede from Canada because with that, Quebecers would be trapped "lobsters thrown into boiling water". [2] On the night of the referendum, Quebec came within only a few thousands of votes of separation, but the Yes side still lost. In his concession speech, Parizeau said sovereignty had been defeated by "money and the ethnic vote", and referred to the Francophones who voted Yes in the referendum as "nous" (us) when he said that this majority group was, for the first time, no longer afraid of political independence. 60% of Quebec Francophones (who represent 80% of all Quebecers) voted Yes. However, the sovereigntist side accepted the results of the vote which they had initiated.

Parizeau was widely criticized for the remarks, which he later characterized as unfortunate and as meriting the disapproval they received. Many suspected he may have been drinking. He resigned as PQ leader and Quebec premier the next day. The English-language media, as well as non-sovereignist newspapers such as La Presse and Le Soleil, associated Parizeau's resignation only with these remarks. As against which, the sovereignist-friendly media (notably Le Devoir newspaper) argued that he had made the decision beforehand, drawing attention to a television interview conducted on the eve of the vote with the Groupe TVA channel in which Parizeau spoke of his intentions to step down in the event of defeat. (This interview had previously been held under "embargo", which is to say that the station agreed not to broadcast it until the referendum was over.)

Quebec sovereignty movement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Quebec_sovereignist_movement

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Economy
• Cape Breton
• coalition
• Dion
• Harper
• jobs
• House of Commons
• liberals
• conservatives
• NDP
• Quebec
• weaker

[rickyb007]

Yes, Harper does come off as much stronger. It's funny but the biggest obstacle Dion faced was his poor english and heavy accent. In the end, I think it's undeniable that Dion was the more intelligent one, and, contrary to Harper's claim, he was very clever and useful when fighting the seperatists.

[pioneercolonel]

Harper has the balls!!

[MajBlood]

Stefane Dion is a big goof ball. I will fix up the Liberal Party when I am leader.

[JaminHell]

LOL

[MaddyOps]

this translator is bull.

[sethralogoth]

Exactly! Association does not necessitate fact of a situation!

[Rickdeckard2020]

Hey, I'll pay a conviceted criminal to endorse Harper, because everyone knows you are always guilty by association for anyone in the world that endorses you.

Obama should not be allowed to be president because a member of AlQeda said it would be good, and we have to abide by what AlQaeda says, compeled to do the exact opposite, if Osama(lets pretend hes still alive) says hes glad cockpit doors are locked then we should unlock them

...sheesh