Quebec Premier Pauline Marois responds to Opposition questions Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at the legislature in Quebec City.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
Politics Insider delivers premium analysis and access to Canada's policymakers and politicians. Visit the Politics Insider homepage for insight available only to subscribers.
During a meeting of separatist groups in Quebec City on Saturday, former Parti Québécois premier Bernard Landry called on pro-sovereignty parties to converge behind the ultimate goal of achieving Quebec independence.
It was a noble call for unity from a former leader who, during his years in power, refused to embark on the same strategy he was now wholeheartedly promoting at the weekend meeting of the Estates General on Independence.
Mr. Landry likes to project the image of a genuine "indépendantiste," a man so devoted to the cause that no one would dare question his credentials. Yet his record as premier and party leader tells a different story. Instead of being the voice of unity, his actions often led to deep divisions on two major fronts – sovereignty and social democracy – which continue to plague the pro-independence movement to this day.
For instance, when he was party leader, Mr. Landry was urged to recruit Amir Khadir as a PQ candidate, but he stubbornly refused. Mr. Khadir was later elected under the Quebec Solidaire party banner, which was founded in 2006 to give Quebec a more left-wing pro-sovereignty voice. Under former PQ premier Lucien Bouchard, the party had become more conservative on social and fiscal policies, a right-wing agenda that Mr. Landry fully supported. Mr. Khadir has since become the most credible voice for social democracy in the Quebec National Assembly and a daily reminder of what the PQ once stood for.
Mr. Landry barely tolerated within the PQ ranks the splinter group SPQ-Libre (Syndicaliste et progressiste pour un Québec libre) in an effort to stop what was left of the progressive forces from deserting the party. However, the left-wing 'political club' would later be expelled from the PQ by current leader Pauline Marois.
On the sovereignty front, Mr. Landry refused to define a strategy to explain how and why he would achieve independence. In 2003 Mr. Landry offered instead an election platform that substituted independence with the idea of a "confederal union," an ambiguous concept aimed at redefining Quebec's place in a new Canadian Confederation.
Pauline Marois fared no better. When she was opposition leader, PQ caucus members Camil Bouchard, Lisette Lapointe and Louise Beaudoin made concrete proposals on what actions the party should take once in power to demonstrate its desire to achieve sovereignty. But Ms. Marois abruptly put an end to their initiatives. Caucus members were so exasperated that some even considered mounting a putsch against their leader. Mr. Bouchard left politics. Ms. Lapointe and Ms. Beaudoin later quit the caucus to sit as independents along with Pierre Curzi and Jean-Martin Aussant in a stinging rebuke of Ms. Marois' leadership.
Like Mr. Landry, Ms. Marois had chosen to place sovereignty on the backburner convincing Mr. Aussant of the need to create a new party, Option Nationale, devoted to Quebec independence, arguing that the PQ was more interested in exercising power than in achieving sovereignty.
In his autobiography published last week, former cabinet minister and a founding member of the PQ, Jean Garon concluded that the party had become "careerist" influenced by "apparatchiks" more devoted to their own personal interests than fighting for independence.
According to Mr. Garon, former PQ leader Lucien Bouchard sabotaged the founding pillars of the party – sovereignty, social democracy and the uncompromising defence of the French language – at the altar of political power.
Pauline Marois and Bernard Landry followed in Mr. Bouchard's footsteps causing the splintering of the sovereignty movement.
So it comes as no surprise that the recently formed New Movement for Quebec which will hold a convention in May calling for the 'National Convergence" of separatists groups faces an impossible challenge in its efforts to unite the pro-independence forces. It's most prominent spokesperson, Mr. Landry, was one of the architects of the divisions. And the current PQ leader, Ms. Marois, has no desire to make peace with her political rivals in the sovereignty movement.
Rhéal Séguin covers the Quebec legislature in Quebec City.