By Arthur Weinreb
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Poor Gilles Duceppe. The leader of the Bloc Quebecois is really taking some serious heat. After allegedly leading the charge that ended the short and non-illustrious career of Andre Boisclair, leader of the Parti Quebecois, Duceppe announced last Friday that he would be running for the leadership of the provincial separatist party.
On Saturday, approximately 24 hours after he threw his hat in the ring, Duceppe grabbed it back and announced he was no longer a candidate to become not only PQ leader, but hopefully the first king or president or whatever they will call the head of state of an independent Quebec. It seems that Gilles wanted a coronation, something usually reserved for monarchy and the odd (extremely odd) leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. The BQ leader realized on that fateful Saturday that he would have to duke it out with three-time leadership candidate, Pauline Marois. So Duceppe left the race almost as soon as he entered it.
And now everyone is making fun of Gilles who uttered the phrase that is rarely heard amongst the political elite in this country -- "I made a mistake". Chalk up more proof that Quebec is indeed a distinct society.
As leader of the Bloc, Gilles Duceppe will survive his 20-something hour foray into provincial politics. Let's face it; any leader who can survive and remain in a leadership position for 10 years after posing for a picture while wearing a hairnet must have something going for him. That picture was a lot worse than the photo showing 1988 Democratic Party nominee, Michael Dukakis sitting on top of a tank. And really, does anyone know where Dukakis is hanging his helmet these days?
Instead of being criticized, Duceppe should be commended. Although his main ambition is to break up Canada, he can now be looked at as an inspiration to Canadians, especially those who aspire to lead a political party. If only one mediocre leadership hopeful can learn from the Bloc leader and "do a Duceppe" imagine how much better off this country might be.
The mind boggles at how different Canada would be today if other leaders had done a Duceppe and realized within a space of a day that their leadership aspirations were misguided. Let's take Stphane Dion, the current leader of the Liberal Party. In all probability had Dion left the leadership race a couple of hours after he entered it, we probably would not now be obsessed with whether or not Scary Steve is looking at a majority or only a minority the next time Canadians go to the polls. Instead, the media would be full of what the next Liberal government will do when they obtain power after the next election. On the other hand, there would be no speculation about how Canada would look under a prime minister with French citizenship. Then again we would be deprived of a leader who cares -- let's face it, anyone who names his dog "Kyoto" has to care. No matter how you look at it, the Liberals would have had a much easier opportunity to gain power had Stphane done a Duceppe.
Now no discussion of what might have been could possibly be complete without referring to Paul Martin Jr. (he was the prime minister of Canada before Stephen Harper for those who have forgotten). Paul spent so much time thinking about becoming the prime minister that he had no clue what he would do when he finally achieved the office that was denied three times to daddy. Martin was like the mountain climber who spent his entire life planning to climb the highest mountain and then when he reached the summit, realized that there was nowhere to go but down. Had Paul reversed his decision after entering the leadership, the Natural Governing Party would still be in power and Stephen Harper would be back in Alberta in the firewall construction business.
And in Ontario had Dalton McGuinty done a Duceppe, he may have killed two birds with one stone. Gerard Kennedy would probably be premier and the residents of Ontario might, just might, be told the truth once in awhile by their province's leader. And Premier Kennedy would not have had time to be a federal Liberal leadership candidate and would not have played kingmaker at the convention which led to Steffi becoming leader.
There is no doubt that the world, or at least our little corner of it, would be a better place had other leadership candidates quit their races the day after they entered them. Instead of being dumped on and laughed at, Gilles Duceppe should be praised for the action that he took.
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