The Bloc Quebecois is poised to keep its third-place spot in the House of Commons, but could lose as many as 10 seats — almost entirely to the Liberals’ gain — a result leader Yves-François Blanchet is chalking up largely to the threat of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Before dissolution, the Bloc held 33 seats in the House of Commons, more than the NDP, but are now elected or leading in 23.
Blanchet, meanwhile, has handily won back his seat.
The separatist party leader struggled during this campaign to make his case to Canadians, amid a surge in national pride in the face of the economic and sovereignty threats posed by Trump.
Late last week, Blanchet issued a scathing assessment of Canada as a country — and Quebec’s place in it — as he made his case to Quebecers that only he would protect their interests.
“We are, whether we like it or not, part of an artificial country with very little meaning, called Canada,” Blanchet said in English during a campaign stop in Shawinigan, Que. He was responding to a question about previous remarks he’s made, calling the House of Commons a “foreign Parliament” that he sits in.
During a press conference Tuesday morning, Blanchet largely blamed Trump’s domination of the election discourse for the Bloc’s campaign challenges.
While no two elections are the same, Blanchet said in French, this one was particularly unusual.
“Each time (the Liberals) feared to lose ground, suddenly, the 51st state came back, and there was affirmation about Canada’s sovereignty,” Blanchet said, referring to Trump’s threats to annex Canada. “I will refrain from judging people about that, because we all have to consider working together with our differences.”
Blanchet said while there is no guarantee of stability with the race results coming in as close as they have between the Liberals and Conservatives, he understands Quebecers want him to work with the government to avoid unnecessary unpredictability.
The Bloc leader insisted, however, that his party will not offer up any concessions, when it comes to issues of pipelines and protections for the French language.
He also congratulated the other campaigns, thanked his supporters and other candidates, and acknowledged the Bloc MPs who lost their seats, specifically his good friend and now former Bloc House leader Alain Therrien, who lost to the Liberal candidate.
Whereas the Bloc enjoyed a healthy double-digit lead in public opinion tracking in Quebec last spring, the Conservatives and the Liberals started to catch up over the summer, and the election campaign quickly became a two-horse race between those two parties.
Blanchet ran unopposed for the leadership and took over the party in January 2019. At the time, the Bloc experienced significant turmoil, first by losing official party status during the 2011 federal election, and then during a series of leadership challenges, culminating in the ouster of embattled former leader Martine Ouellet in 2018.
Blanchet won his riding with more than 50 per cent of the vote in the previous two elections. He received about 48 per cent of the vote on Monday.
With files from CTV News’ Joshua Freeman
