(Posted by John.)
It's so rare for Canadian politics to make it out of the Canadian-blogging ghetto, so let me grasp this moment while I can... I have to say, I'm not nearly as optimistic as Scott Lemieux when he says "Ah, you always have to like it when the ethnic nationalist secessionists finish third." The ADQ -- the party that pushed the overtly-secessionist Parti Quebecois in to third place -- is actually chock full of ethnic nationalists (and plenty of other nasty characters besides) and has more than one secessionist in its ranks, though I'm not sure if any one member actually combines both sides. In contrast, the PQ in this election was actually led by a gay man whose aim was to try and present a more multicultural, tolerant view of Quebec's traditionally racist separatist movement.* He lost votes to a party with a candidate who denied the Rwandan Genocide took place. [My apologies. I got that one wrong. Details beneath the fold.] So yes, ethnic nationalism in Quebec -- from which the secessionist impulse flows -- did very well this week, at the expense of a more progressive vision of Quebec society.
To call the ADQ a "federalist" party (in Canadian parlance, a party not committed to the dissolution of the country) is problematic, to say the least, considering that the leader of the ADQ campaigned vigorously for secession in the last referendum. On top of all this, the ADQ has happily used a lot of ambiguity and dog-whistle politics about it's actual views on Quebec's place within Canada.
There are a lot of people who are now proclaiming the Quebec separatist movement dead. I really, really don't think that's the case -- Quebec has been musing about separation since this country was founded, and I don't think we've unwittingly stumbled in to an era of peace on this front.
*The most frightening moment of my young political life was watching the leader of the separatists in Quebec lead a howling mob chanting "Le Quebec aux Quebecois" (Quebec for Quebeckers!) and blaming Jews and immigrants ("money and the ethnic vote") for their frighteningly narrow electoral defeat. This was in 1995, but to my young eyes it looked a lot older.
(french corrected, thanks Stephen!)
