If the current Quebec election standings are confirmed, there is even less reason for Ottawa to regard any PQ government as anything but a weak minority with no mandate to do anything radical, and certainly not to threaten to break up the country. The electorate has decisively refused to give the PQ backing for another referendum, and a solid majority has backed parties that have promised no referendum. Marois can say all she likes that she will demand an immediate meeting with the PM to demand control of language, culture and EI. If the PM is smart, someone on the Langevin switchboard will take that message, and then promptly lose it….He will write immediately welcoming her and saying how much he looks forward to working with her within the established constitutional, legal and political framework for the betterment of Canada and Quebec, just as Trudeau did to Levesque, who had a much stronger mandate than this.
And of course if the CAQ and the PLQ can find some modus vivendi, they can combine and put the PQ out at any time….
As I wrote in my Ottawa Citizen/Calgary Herald column on election day, Quebec isn’t going anywhere. The sovereigntists’ bargaining power has rarely been weaker. Canada is not in danger. Let’s celebrate that!
