SHERBROOKE (Quebec) – That “magic word” is present, in the Bloc Québécois program: independence. It’s on page 14, in the paragraph entitled Faire porter notre voix (“Make our voice heard”), in a context that leaves no room for doubt: “All elected representatives of the Bloc Québécois will present an image of Quebec to the international community and to the diplomatic corps in Canada and Quebec, thus preparing them for the possibility of a future referendum on sovereignty and, if necessary, recognition of Quebec’s independence…”.

Independance also appears in a second paragraph: the one relating to Quebec culture, in this specific case to information, when reference is made to the need to distinguish French networks from English ones.

Distinguishing itself – in every sense – from the rest of Canada is, in short, the main objective of the Bloc program, presented by leader Yves-François Blanchet last Saturday in Sherbrooke, Quebec. A program titled “Choisir le Québec” (“Choose Quebec”: you can read/download it here) and articuled in about thirty pages “written out of love for our Nation (where “Nation” means Quebec, ed), but also out of duty” to “build the Quebec of tomorrow”: an “independent” Quebec, as we read on page 5 of the program: un Québec indépendant.

The Bloc’s program also addresses all the issues of the moment. To review some of them, there is first of all a bill that would require the federal government to submit the preliminary texts of any free trade agreement to a vote in the House of Commons before they are ratified, also in light of the fact that, in the specific case of the trade war with the United States, the threats posed by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs target Quebec’s industries, particularly the aerospace, aluminum, wood and fishing sectors. “Last time I checked, Canada was supposed to be a democracy,” Blanchet said in Sherbrooke. “Any treaty has to be supported and voted on in Parliament. Otherwise, what’s the point of having a Parliament?” Furthermore, according to the Quebec platform, a Quebec delegation, selected by the Province itself, should be able to represent its interests when it comes to negotiating a free trade agreement. “Its interests” means the interests of Quebec, not Canada, as in the case of the hypothesis of an oil pipeline: Blanchet has already said, there will be no pipelines on Quebec soil.

On housing, the Bloc says it wants to reduce flipping in the housing market by forcing homeowners to hold on to the property they buy for at least two years and it proposes (federal) aid for first-time home buyers. On health, the party pledges to continue to look to the federal government to pay 35% of the province’s health costs, but would ask Ottawa to transfer oversight of the public dental care program to Quebec. There is also a proposal, already advanced previously and several times, to increase the old-age pension by 10% for those aged 65 to 74.

On cultural issues, the Bloc advocates secularism and would ban all federal employees working in Quebec from wearing religious symbols; it would also replace the daily prayer held before the start of work in the House of Commons with a moment of reflection.

The platform also calls for anyone sworn in as a Canadian citizen in Quebec to do it in French, rather than choosing between Canada’s two official languages, and any reference to the British monarchy would be removed from the citizenship sermon. Then: abolishing the Senate and reducing the salary of the Governor General of Canada to a symbolic $1 (it is currently $362,800 per year). And, speaking of Canada-Royal Family relations (of which the Governor General is a conduit), the Bloc also proposes charging the “multi-billion dollar British Crown” for the expenses of its visits to Canada.

To make the message even clearer, during the presentation of the platform, Blanchet invited on stage the Quebec singer-songwriter Daniel Boucher, one of the most fervent sovereignists of the Francophone artistic community: the singer-musician performed “Ma Nation”, an original rock song released the day after the federal elections were called, In this song, Boucher paints a dark picture of the current political situation before describing his idealized Nation in the chorus. Where Nation does not mean, of course, Canada, but Quebec which is, as clearly written in the Bloc program, une nation, point. One Nation, point.

In the photo above, Blanchet on stage in Sherbrooke with the singer-songwriter Boucher (pic from Blanchet’s Twitter profile @yfblanchet; here below, the song “Ma Nation”