Features

Boisclair's Gamble

André Boisclair has a new strategy in this election campaign - one he hopes will make him Quebec’s next premier.

Boisclair got off to a rocky start when he became leader of the Parti Québécois in Nov. 2005. His plans to modernize the party didn’t sit well with the old guard sovereigntists and alienated the party’s traditional support base – the unions.

Some Péquistes questioned whether Boisclair is capable of leading the PQ and following in the footsteps of the larger-than-life Quebecers who led the party in the past – René Lévesque and Lucien Bouchard. And indeed, under Boisclair’s reign, the PQ dropped more than 16 points in the polls in 16 months.

Boisclair is hoping to turn things around in this campaign. He spent the first five days attacking Liberal leader Jean Charest’s record and preaching about the benefits of a sovereign Quebec to crowds of mostly aging white francophone PQ supporters.

In the past Boisclair has hinted he was in no rush to pursue sovereignty and wanted to modernize the PQ. But now the PQ leader faces two dilemmas.

Recent polls suggest there’s more support for sovereignty than for the PQ. Recent polls in Quebec show popular support for sovereignty in general hovers around 45 per cent, but drops to 30 per cent for the PQ with Boisclair as leader.

To bring those sovereigntists back into the fold, André Boisclair has made Quebec independence the heart of his campaign platform. On Saturday Feb. 24, he launched the party’s platform, and pledged that if elected, he will hold a referendum as soon as possible in his first mandate.

But Boisclair also knows a majority of Quebecers – two-thirds, according to those recent polls – don’t want a referendum. So, he’s replaced the “R” word with the term popular consultation, a phrase that appears several times in the PQ platform.

In speeches to the party faithful and to the media, Boisclair insists Quebecers will do not doubt his intentions. But by making sovereignty the centerpiece of his campaign, the PQ leader is taking a risk: campaigning on something the majority of Quebecers don’t want.

However, it’s a strategy that might just work. Boisclair is calculating he could win on March 26 if he brings back those disaffected sovereigntists, who would rather not vote than not vote for the PQ.

On Monday Feb. 26 Boisclair took his campaign to the seat-rich regions in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, targeting those sovereigntist voters who may not be as impressed by his modern personal style as voters closer to Montreal.

If Boisclair succeeds in charming the regions, and doesn’t make a mistake in front of a television audience during the March 13 debate, his gambit might just pay off.