Quebec Liberals replace separatists with majority gov't

OTTAWA - Reuters

Quebec Liberal leader Philippe Couillard takes the stage with his wife Suzanne Pilote at his rally headquarters after his victory, April 7. REUTERS Photo

The anti-separatist Quebec Liberal Party won a majority government in provincial elections on April 7, eliminating the possibility of a new referendum on separation from Canada for several years.

The Quebec Liberals, who had warned incessantly of the dangers of another referendum, trounced the separatist Parti Quebecois, which had called the election in a bid to turn their minority government into a majority.

The election in the mainly French-speaking province had  turned into a referendum on whether to hold another vote on separating from Canada, and the answer appeared to be a resounding "Non."

The Liberals led in 71 of the 125 races, and the Parti Quebecois led in just 29, its lowest since 1989.

The Parti Quebecois took the lowest share of the vote since it won 23.1 percent in its first election in 1970. With 94 percent of the voting stations reporting on April 7, it had 25.5 percent of the votes, against 41.1 percent for the Liberals.

It was nearly eclipsed by the upstart Coalition Avenir Quebec, a conservative party which also opposes a referendum, which led in 22 seats and took 23.6 percent of the votes.

Quebec Liberal leader Philippe Couillard will replace Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois as premier.

The Parti Quebecois went into the campaign with a polling lead but this turned to dust after star candidate Pierre Karl Peladeau, a media magnate, pumped his fist in the air in saying how he wanted "to make Quebec a country."

Though sovereignty is the raison d'être of the Parti Quebecois, party leader Marois had focused on other issues and played down the likelihood of a referendum, but Peladeau's declaration returned it front and center.

A first referendum in 1980 lost by almost 20 points but a second one in 1995 turned into a nail-biter for Canada, as the sovereignty option lost by just over one percentage point.

Polls show that two-thirds of Quebec citizens do not want to go through that exercise a third time, and this election showed the dangers for the separatists of musing about leaving Canada.

Secularism charter

Monday's election also means the end of the Parti Quebecois' proposed secularism charter, which would have prevented public sector employees from wearing conspicuous religious symbols, from the Muslim hijab to the Jewish yarmulke on the head to large Christian crosses.

The Quebec Liberals had strenuously opposed the charter, which had proved most popular in francophone areas outside the main cities.

On the federal level, the separatists have also not fared well, being reduced to just four of 75 Quebec seats in the House of Commons in the last federal election in 2011.

Their seats were mainly captured by the opposition New Democratic Party, which is against Quebec independence. NDP leader Thomas Mulcair said in a statement: "The NDP has taken note of the people's desire to end the old quarrels."