The road back for PQ

Landry lost the election because he wasn't sovereignist enough, so PQ supporters stayed home or voted ADQ. That's a lesson for the next PQ leader

• Josée Legault
• 16 avril 2003
• Montreal Gazette
• Élections 2003

On Monday, voter turnout was at a mere 70 per cent. That's almost 10 percentage points less than in the 1998 election. Among those who stayed home were many sovereignists. This, in part, is what sent the Parti Québécois into opposition. The mathematics are simple. The PQ received 33 per cent of the popular vote - the lowest since 1973 - while 40 to 45 per cent of Quebecers support sovereignty. That's a gap large en...

Élections 2003

Landry slips fast one by the party

• Josée Legault
• 21 mars 2003
• Montreal Gazette
• Élections 2003

The devil, they say, is in the details. And in the Parti Québécois election platform, they were cleverly hidden behind a mirage. Unknown to most party members who were not given the time to read through the platform, let alone debate it, they voted unanimously to adopt a major new virage they hadn't seen, buried near the end of the 100-page document. Sovereignty-partnership, the centrepiece of the party's doctrine ...

Élections 2003

ADQ's success was crudely circumstantial

• Josée Legault
• 14 mars 2003
• Élections 2003

Jacques Parizeau likes to say that politics is a violent sport. As polls continue to show the Action démocratique du Québec's retreat to third-party status, Mario Dumont must be painfully aware of how true Parizeau's words are. It was only last year that newspapers and magazines were overflowing with stories on the making of Mario Dumont, the new boy wonder. How was it, they all mused, that this 32-year-old was now...

Sovereignists press for commitment

• Josée Legault
• 7 mars 2003
• Montreal Gazette
• Élections 2003

Josée Legault, a keen observer of Quebec politics and life, returns to The Gazette's opinion pages today after a two-year hiatus during which she worked as a special adviser to Premier Bernard Landry. Her column will appear on Fridays. What's a miracle worth to Bernard Landry? So far, not even the possibility of a providential third mandate seems sufficient for the premier to make a firm commitment to achieving...