Duceppe dismisses Martin's warning of 'referendum election'
Last Updated: Sunday, December 4, 2005 | 11:44 PM ET
CBC News
Duceppe mocked Martin while speaking Sunday to about 600 Bloc delegates at a special meeting in Longueuil, Que.
Duceppe said that if Martin were correct and if the Bloc were to win the majority of parliamentary seats in Quebec, it would force sovereignty negotiations to begin with the federalist government of Liberal Premier Jean Charest.
The Bloc leader said the election was a kind of referendum – but on a difference question: "Do you want to get rid of Paul Martin's Liberals, yes or no?"
"We're not deciding sovereignty," Duceppe later told reporters. "It's a federal election, Paul Martin should know that."
He was responding to comments made a few days earlier by Martin, who called it a "referendum election."
The Liberals have been trying to capitalize on some Quebecers' fears that a vote for the Bloc would necessarily be a vote for sovereignty.
"The election in Quebec is between ourselves and the Bloc," Martin said on Dec. 2.
"Yesterday, [Parti Québécois Leader] André Boisclair and Gilles Duceppe made it very clear that it is their intention to rip Canada apart, to pit Quebec family against Quebec family. That's not in anybody's interest."
Quebec, where Bloc MPs hold 53 of 75 seats, is seen as a key battle in the campaign. It's where public outrage over the federal sponsorship program scandal has climbed highest, with a resulting plunge in support for the Liberals.
"A lot of federalists in Quebec, people who support a federalism that respects Quebec, feel very uncomfortable supporting the Liberals, who have damaged federalism more than any political party in recent memory," said NDP Leader Jack Layton.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper predicted Martin's comments would only undermine federalists like Charest.
"We have a federalist government in Quebec, the most federalist prime minister in my lifetime," Harper said. "He wants to make Canada work."
Charest has stayed out of the federal campaign so far. But the federal separatist party has been getting shows of support from provincial political figures, including former PQ leader Bernard Landry.
Boisclair had already shown up at a couple of events and was side-by-side with Duceppe on Sunday.
"They are trying to build a momentum and quite frankly they are trying to surf on Gilles Duceppe's popularity," Vincent Marissal, of Montreal's La Presse newspaper, told CBC News Sunday.
