Quebec Party Ends Drive for Independence

Quebec’s reigning political organization, the Parti Quebecois, voted Saturday to abandon independence for Quebec from the rest of Canada as a campaign issue in the next provincial election, ending one of the most dramatic and controversial episodes in Canadian history.

The action came during a special party convention called by provincial Premier Rene Levesque to ratify a decision he made late last year to drop the issue of sovereignty for this French-speaking province as an immediate goal.

In Saturday’s voting, two-thirds of the nearly 1,600 delegates supported Levesque against hard-liners called “orthodoxes,” who demanded that the party adhere to the separatist principles on which it was founded in 1966.

Although the 500 “orthodox” delegates walked out of the convention twice after losing key votes, their leader, former Quebec Social Affairs Minister Camille Laurin, said they would not bolt the party, at least for the time being.

Levesque told the delegates after his victory that “we are still sovereigntists”--then added the qualifier “but.”

That “but” is all-important since, as Levesque later told reporters, his party had become “disconnected” from the people because of its preoccupation with independence.

The polls bear him out. Even though the Parti Quebecois lost a provincial referendum four years ago on the independence issue, 40.5% of the voters supported sovereignty. Now, however, poll figures put support for independence at 19%.

Motivated by Surveys Levesque’s self-proclaimed “turnabout” also was motivated by surveys showing that his most powerful rival in the party, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Pierre-Marc Johnson, is more popular than the premier. Johnson is a major proponent for dropping the independence issue.

Nearly all political experts in Quebec agree that chances of turning the party and the province back toward a serious bid for independence is now impossible.

Levesque said that the way to restore both his popularity and the party’s electoral position is “by pursuing justice, equality and good government.”

In other words, he is counting on a traditional campaign approach as free as possible from ideology.

From its beginnings nearly 20 years ago, the Parti Quebecois, with Levesque as its leader, has provided Canada with some of its most exciting and dangerous moments.

Frightened Federalists Canada would suffer without this economically and culturally rich province, and the two electoral victories by Levesque frightened the federalists throughout the country.

Yet even as this concern led to federal policies aimed at pleasing French-speaking Quebec, Levesque and his party were softening their demands for independence.

This process was accelerated when the party lost the independence referendum, and it came to a climax in December when Levesque said he wanted to change the party’s charter language from the statement that “a vote for the (Parti Quebecois) is a vote for independence.”

Saturday’s big victory was essential to Levesque’s political survival, as well as to the party’s hopes in the next election.

If Levesque had not won by such a large margin, both the hard-liners and the moderates backing Johnson would have demanded his resignation as leader.

As it stands, Levesque told a news conference, he will lead the party in the next election and will not call a leadership conference to consider a change.

If Levesque’s election strategy proves successful in a vote expected to come before next June, it is unlikely to restore the hopes of independence.

Ends Violent Chapter It also will end a chapter of Canadian history that included violence and a serious change in the relationship between the French-speaking province and the rest of the country.

Until sovereignty became a serious issue, Quebec was losing ground to the rest of the English-speaking nation, and even in the province itself, Francophones, as the French-speaking people call themselves, were dominated by the English-speakers.

By forcing Canada as a whole to focus on its concerns and demands, Quebec, under the leadership of Levesque, has been able to acquire serious respect as well as more tangible benefits in terms of federal spending.

Language Guarantee Quebec’s stance also influenced the framers of a bill of rights that went into effect in April, 1982, when a new constitution was proclaimed for Canada. An article of the constitution gives every Canadian the right to an education in his own language, whether English or French, anywhere in Canada where there are enough students to warrant setting up a class for them.

Important, too, has been the political power acquired by French-speaking Quebeckers under what has become known as “the quiet revolution.” Two of the last three prime ministers of Canada, the incumbent Brian Mulroney and former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, were born in Quebec, and many of the nation’s most prominent politicians are residents of the province.