ST-HYACINTHE, Que. – “I hope to be the last premier to have to spend a lot of time on settling the national question,” said Bernard Landry in his speech delivered to 400 delegates to a PQ meeting where he was elected as party leader.
Landry, 63, who once called the Canadian flag the “red rag”, becomes the fifth PQ leader in the party’s 33-year history. He was the only candidate to replace the retiring Lucien Bouchard.
Landry wasted no time in outlining his separatist objectives. He again repeated his oft-stated view that Quebec deserves to be a country and is not a province like the others.
“What a privilege it is to create a country in one’s lifetime, to bring a new country into the international community.”
“Quebec wants dialogue with national political entities, and not equality — with all due respect — with Saskatchewan and Manitoba. They are simple provinces of Canada and are happy, without national aspirations.”
In 1968, Bernard Landry helped Rene Levesque found the PQ and served as a cabinet minister under Levesque, Pierre Marc Johnson, Jacques Parizeau and Bouchard.
Throughout his political career, his short temper and verbal excesses would get the best of him. The most damaging example was on the night of the October, 1995, referendum defeat when he insinuated that ethnic voters were to blame for the defeat. He later apologized and resigned as minister responsible for immigration, but the incident continues to haunt him.
Bouchard resigned as PQ leader in January, saying he wasn’t the man to achieve sovereignty. He will practise law for a high-profile Montreal law firm and has offers to sit on a number of company boards. He has said he will completely distance himself from politics, as did former Parti Québécois premier Pierre-Marc Johnson.
In his speech Landry praised Bouchard as a man who did “extraordinary” things for Quebec.
“His humanity allowed us to govern rigorously, with economic efficiency but also with social and cultural openness.”
Bernard Laundry will be sworn in as premier of Quebec next week.
