Liberals Rout Separatists in Quebec’s Election

The Liberal Party easily won control of the Quebec provincial government Monday, marking an astounding political comeback and ending whatever prospects were left of establishing a French-speaking independent nation in North America.

However, Liberal Party leader and former Premier Robert Bourassa was defeated in the Montreal district of Bertrand, reflecting continued voter discontent with the man who suffered one of the country’s worst campaign losses when he and the party were turned out of office nine years ago.

But despite the loss, Bourassa will still be provincial premier. However, he will not be able to appear on the floor of the National Assembly until he arranges and wins a by-election.

With all but a few districts counted, the Liberals apparently had won 98 of the 122 parliamentary seats against only 24 of the incumbent separatist-minded Parti Quebecois and its leader, Premier Marc Johnson.

The results represent a decisive setback for the Parti Quebecois, which at one time had seemed to be nearly invincible in its drive to turn Quebec, where 80% of the citizens are French-speaking, into an independent nation in an effort to preserve French culture amid the English-speaking majority in the rest of Canada. But erosion of popular support for the independence drive led to the party’s decision last January to shelve the independence issue indefinitely.