The changing politics of Canada
By Peter Van Loan

There is little doubt that, as a Member of Parliament, I probably paid more attention to the recent by-elections in Quebec than a normal person would. But there is much in the results to interest even those who pay little attention to politics.

The by-elections demonstrate that Canadian politics is changing dramatically. The Liberal party of Canada is almost extinct in francophone Quebec. The separatist movement is in decline. The Conservative Party has become the leading party of national unity.

The headlines told us that the NDP took one seat from the Liberals, the Conservatives took a seat from the Bloc Quebecois, and the Bloc hung on to a third of the seats at stake, but there are deeper issues in the details.

Stephane Dion would restore the Liberal Party's standing in Quebec, we have been told by the pundits. This is no mean task. The Liberal Party has not won a majority of seats in Quebec in over a quarter century. The aroma of corruption from the sponsorship scandal is still heavy on the Liberal brand in Quebec and Stephane Dion is seen as having been opposed to the legitimate aspirations of Quebecois.

In the by-elections, Quebecers passed judgement decisively on Stephane Dion's leadership. In the two predominantly francophone ridings, the Liberal vote totals were so low they cost their deposits - finishing behind even the NDP in St. Hyacinthe. But the Montreal Outremont riding, Liberal in every election but one for close to a century, the Liberal candidate was soundly trounced.

The decline of the Liberal Party links directly to the decline of the Bloc Quebecois. Both parties have lived in a co-dependency relationship for years. The Liberals have used the separatist bogeyman to maintain support. The Bloc Quebecois have pointed to a corrupt over centralizing Liberal Party to fan the flames of separatism.

Thus, as the Liberal Party fades, so does the support for the separatists.

This was seen in the by-elections where the Bloc-Quebecois vote plunged dramatically in all three ridings. Roberval Lac St. Jean, in the separatist heartland was the most dramatic. The former leader of the Bloc Quebecois, Michel Gauthier, was the MP for the riding. On byelection night, the Conservatives defeated the Bloc by a more than two to one margin.

Canada has clearly entered a new era. The separatist threat is diminishing and the unity of the country is stronger no than it has been in years. The Conservative Party is now the federalist party in Quebec. The politics of Canada are indeed changing.