New Cast in Quebec

The Canadian province of Quebec today holds its first election in 16 years in which the overriding question pertains neither to language nor to the dissolution of its bonds with Canada.

There is a new cast of characters in Quebec to wrestle with an old issue: what to do about the economy. After the departure of its founder, Rene Levesque, in September, the Parti Quebecois selected Pierre Marc Johnson as its leader and therefore the provincial premier. Johnson, 39, the son of a former premier, downplays his party’s connection with the issue of separatism from the Canadian federation. His opponent is Robert Bourassa, 52, leader of the Liberal Party and Quebec’s premier from 1970 to 1976.

Both candidates promise a brighter economic future, one that Quebec residents can only hope that the winner delivers to combat unemployment and the provincial government’s deficit. Some polls have put the Liberals ahead, but the PQ has narrowed the gap and few are daring to predict the outcome.

No matter who wins, Johnson or Bourassa, the political course has already been set in the last few years. As the federal government led by Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau brought French-speakers more directly into the Canadian mainstream, provincial voters were rejecting separatism. Thus for the true believers on either side of the question that has torn Quebec for many years--Is it Canadian or is it something apart?--that issue has at least momentarily faded into history.