There was a rather revealing moment on the Bloc campaign today.

Gilles Duceppe met with the outspoken (and openly sovereigntist) mayor of Huntingdon, a small farming and manufacturing community southwest of Montreal.

Once Duceppe finished his daily news conference with reporters, the mayor, Stephane Gendron, took his place at the BQ campaign podium. Given Gendron's reputation for offering unbridled opinions on almost any topic, It didn't take long for reporters to start asking questions about the Opus Dei controversy. No sooner had Gendron begun to dismiss the relevance of a person's membership with any order, religion, or club (he says he doesn't believe in God), than a Bloc handler approached the podium, waving his arms to reporters and shaking his head, to signal the questions ought to go somewhere else.

Clearly the Bloc is concerned Duceppe's attacks have made the party vulnerable to being labelled intolerant, and want the Opus Dei story to go away now.

— Tim Duboyce