Now, an emerging question: Can a split become
an irrevocable rupture costing Bouchard the
leadership?
He asked his party to think about it over the
holidays. But there's no apparent solution.
In February, the party must choose its byelection
candidate and right now, both sides seem locked
into their positions facing a deadline they cannot
avoid.
POSTED AT 4:04 AM EST Wednesday, December 20
Bouchard courts confrontation
By RHЙAL SЙGUIN
Globe and Mail Update
Quebec - Premier Lucien Bouchard is prepared to
put his leadership on the line if the Parti Quйbйcois fails to support him on several
contentious issues, including his intention to ban a prominent PQ member from running in
a by-election next spring.
"He is prepared to take on the party," said a senior party member. "We get the sense that if
the party executive goes against him on the Yves Michaud affair, on language or on his
strategy for achieving sovereignty, the party will shatter. The mood is such that we may be
looking at a confrontation between the leader and the party. He warned us it could be
fatal."
The source said this means that Mr. Bouchard could resign.
Shareholder-rights activist and party member Yves Michaud, who had hoped to stand for
the PQ in a by-election next spring, caused a furor earlier this month with his comments
about Jews and ethnic voters.
The party executive will meet in the new year to hear Mr. Michaud defend himself and
decide whether to bar his candidacy. It will be the first in a number of showdowns within
the party.
In February, it must take a position on toughening the province's language laws and define
a strategy to achieve sovereignty. Mr. Bouchard has made it known that he will not tolerate
any radical position on language, and has warned members to be patient about another
referendum.
He has also said he favours blocking Mr. Michaud's candidacy.
The Premier will have to deal with the mounting frustrations or face a confrontation.
The split within sovereigntist ranks blew up in public this week as prominent separatist
leaders, including former premier Jacques Parizeau and Bloc Quйbйcois Leader Gilles
Duceppe, said Mr. Bouchard's PQ caucus had no right to support a motion in the National
Assembly reprimanding Mr. Michaud.
"The Parti Quйbйcois is divided in the same way Quebec society is divided," party
vice-president Marie Malavoy said Tuesday. "The party didn't close the door on his
candidacy ... but we have to discuss it as soon as possible."
Mr. Michaud outraged the Jewish community for stating that Jews were not the only ones
in the history of humanity to suffer. He also said there is an anti-sovereignty ethnic vote,
pointing to 12 polls in the Montreal suburb of Cфte-Saint-Luc, which has a high
concentration of Jewish residents, where everyone voted against sovereignty in the 1995
referendum. He also called the B'nai Brith, an influential Jewish-rights organization,
extremist and anti-sovereigntist.
Mr. Duceppe said Tuesday that he disagreed with Mr. Michaud's comments, but that the