Canada

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Monarchy under attack in Quebec campaign

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 08/8/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

MONTREAL -- The Parti Quebecois is taking on a famous target in the provincial election campaign: the Queen.

The pro-independence party's leader has been calling the monarchy a waste of money, an outdated institution and a sign that Quebec has no place in Stephen Harper's Canada.

At a news conference Tuesday, Pauline Marois was asked about that kind of talk and whether it might be impolite during the Queen's Jubilee year.

"It doesn't bother me at all to attack royalty," the PQ leader replied to a reporter from a Toronto newspaper.

"It's not because it's the... event... what's that... the Jubilee -- I was looking for the term -- not because it's the Queen's Jubilee we should avoid commenting."

The PQ, under Marois, has been much more active in appealing to cultural nationalism than it was under some of her predecessors.

The party suffered its worst election defeat in decades in 2007 under Andre Boisclair, and was believed to have lost much of the nationalist vote to the now-defunct populist ADQ.

Marois has sought to address that. Under her, the party has repeatedly drawn attention to slights against the French language in public and private institutions. She explained Tuesday that such vigilance is the only way to protect the culture as a minority in North America.

In the span of several months, after last year's federal election, the Harper Tories provided her party with some fresh targets and she has hammered away at them.

Moves to hire people who can't speak French to senior federal positions, and to place the monarchy on prominent display in federal institutions, have become a familiar PQ attack theme.

On Tuesday, Marois ridiculed the Harper Tories for replacing the paintings of Alfred Pellan with a large portrait of the Queen in the Foreign Affairs building in Ottawa. The commissioning of a separate portrait, a new one for Rideau Hall, was "money badly invested," she said.

And Marois called it wasteful to have vice-regal institutions in every province.

"(The monarchy) creates institutions like the lieutenant-governor's office that, in my opinion, are not useful," Marois said. "What's not useful is having sums spent for no reason to have him sign laws he has nothing to say about, and accepting the premier's demand to have an election. If you ask me, these are completely outdated institutions and we should question them."

Identity issues have not figured prominently in the campaign so far. The dominant themes so far have been the student conflict, attacking corruption and economic promises.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 8, 2012 A7

Factual inaccuracy? Something missing? Help improve our journalism.

Know about news? Share your story suggestions, photos and video.

Spelling error? Punctuation problem? Send us an email if you’ve found a typo.

More Canada

Undock

You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments. All you need to do is register and/or login and you can join the conversation and give your feedback.

Have Your Say

New to commenting? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.

The Winnipeg Free Press does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comment, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. These terms were revised effective April 16, 2010.