The two front-runners in the Parti Québécois leadership race failed to make any major breakthroughs in last night's much-anticipated debate on Quebec sovereignty.
André Boisclair and Pauline Marois were long on pro-sovereignty rhetoric but short on details. And they failed to engage in any major confrontation. Only at the end did Ms. Marois attack her rival for the leadership of the party, referring indirectly to Mr. Boisclair's admission that he took cocaine as a blow to his credibility.
"We will soon be at a decisive turning point in our battle. To succeed we must be beyond reproach," Ms. Marois said.
As the leading candidate, Mr. Boisclair was cautious about his sovereignty strategy, speaking of the need to create a coalition to win the next election that would generate "natural movement" for the sovereignty cause.
"The only condition for holding a referendum is that we win the next election," he said, asking PQ members to choose a "modern leader."
He promised he would hold a referendum "as soon as possible in the next mandate," adopt a constitution and declare sovereignty in the event of a referendum victory. But he did not explain about how negotiations with the rest of Canada would unfold if he were Quebec premier, or what the implications of a unilateral declaration of independence would be internationally.
Ms. Marois, Mr. Boisclair's main rival, offered nothing radically different. "We must tell voters that if they elect a PQ government they will give us a mandate to prepare the next referendum," she said, without committing to a timetable.
She also promised to adopt a plan to prepare for the transition to sovereignty. And like Mr. Boisclair, she did not say whether she would seek a clear mandate in the next election to govern a country rather than a province.
Richard Legendre was the only candidate to propose a detailed strategy: he promised to hold a referendum in the first year of a PQ mandate and move quickly and boldly to achieve sovereignty. He attacked Mr. Boisclair, who once compared him to a cowboy figure in a popular cartoon strip, for committing himself to a referendum timetable. And Mr. Legendre mocked Ms. Marois for proposing a plan similar to former leader Lucien Bouchard's vague "winning conditions" for holding a referendum.
Mr. Boisclair packed the hall with supporters to give his campaign a much-needed boost after being hurt by his admission last month that he used cocaine when he was a cabinet minister in 1997. His bid to shake off the controversy suffered a setback on Tuesday when former party leader Bernard Landry called the incident "extremely serious" and said he would have ordered an investigation had he been premier at the time.
PQ members will choose their new leader in a telephone vote Nov. 13-15. Last night, after a debate that had no major confrontations or surprising declarations, candidate Pierre Dubuc, in his closing remarks, gave a gloomy summary of the race. "Our party has no leader, it has no charismatic candidate capable of creating a new wave of enthusiasm," he said.
The other marginal candidates were just as blunt. Gilbert Paquette said voters should be told, "Take us with our option or don't vote for us at all."
Louis Bernard even proposed the referendum question: "Do you want Quebec to become a sovereign and independent country?" he said.
Hard-line candidate Jean-Claude Saint-André argued that in 1995, sovereigntists had, in fact, won the referendum. "It was stolen from us," he said, adding that in the weeks before the referendum vote, 43,000 immigrants were sworn in as Canadian citizens and urged to vote against sovereignty. Another 50,000 voted illegally, he added.
The sovereigntist side lost the referendum by 54,288 votes.
"It is true we lost, but with what? Money and Liberal fraud," said Mr. Saint-André, echoing former PQ leader Jacques Parizeau's infamous speech where he blamed the loss "on money and ethnic votes."
Rhéal Séguin