Quebec Pro-Independence Party Wins Reelection

Quebec’s pro-independence government was reelected Monday but won only 43% of the popular vote, probably dampening its zest for holding a secession referendum soon.

The outcome means a new term of up to five years for Quebec’s charismatic premier, Lucien Bouchard, who says he will call a referendum on independence whenever he feels the separatist side can win.

But he may need to wait awhile for what he calls the “winning conditions.” His Parti Quebecois retained its majority in the legislature but was narrowly outpolled in the popular vote by its anti-separatist rival, the Quebec Liberal Party.

With 94% of the 23,000 polling stations reporting late Monday, the separatists had 42.8% of the votes to 43.6% for the Liberals and 12% for a third party, Democratic Action.

The separatists were on track to win 77 of the legislature’s 125 seats, the Liberals 46 and Democratic Action one, with one seat to be filled later because the separatist candidate recently died.

The outcome was a virtual replay of 1994, when the separatists won 77 seats to 47 for the Liberals, with each receiving about 44% of the popular vote.

Bouchard’s main rival was Quebec Liberal Party leader Jean Charest.

Charest, 40, became an early favorite when he quit federal politics in March to enter the Quebec race; in English-speaking Canada, he was viewed as the potential savior of national unity.

But despite his family roots in Quebec, he was widely perceived by the province’s French-speaking majority as more of an outsider than Bouchard, and less likely to do battle for the province in any confrontations with the federal government.

Bouchard, 59, has maintained high popularity ratings despite overseeing painful spending cuts over the past three years in a drive to erase Quebec’s deficit.