Bloc Nomination Showdown in Hochelaga
[Welcome National Newswatch readers!]
A candidate for the Bloc Québécois nomination is accusing leader Gilles Duceppe's office of trying to pressure him to drop out of the race, in advance of tomorrow night's contested nomination meeting to pick the party's candidate for next month's by-election in this east-end Montréal riding, reports Kathleen Levesque of Le Devoir this afternoon. The report has sparked the NDP's candidate to ask why the Bloc would "borrow the strategies of the Liberal Party" and whether this represents the "Coderrisation du Bloc québécois".
25-year Hochelaga resident and "confirmed sovereignist and social democrat", Jean Baribeau, has been running for the Bloc nomination since June. He told Le Devoir that he received a telephone call from a staff member in Duceppe's office Tuesday morning asking him to step aside, saying they wanted the Thursday meeting to be a big media event introducing Duceppe's endorsed candidate and recently-appointed economic advisor, former PQ Industry Minister Daniel Paillé.
Citing Duceppe's commitment of last month to hold an open nomination, Baribeau is refusing to stand down, and now refusing to return the calls of Duceppe himself, complaining that the Bloc has already been introducing Paillé as their candidate, and that they've sent in an experienced Bloc organizer to run his nomination campaign. Another nomination candidate, Benoît Dumuy, who was an aide to the former Bloc M.P. in the riding, Réal Ménard, and who had also been selling memberships since June, was already persuaded by Duceppe in early September to withdraw from the race, and a fourth reported candidate Thérèse Ste-Marie also appears to be out of the race now. SMALL UPDATE: Indeed, she has withdrawn and endorsed M. Paillé, according to Les Nouvelles Hochelaga Maisonneuve, which unfortunately however got the nomination date wrong at the end of its story.
Meanwhile the NDP's Jean-Claude Rocheleau, who was renominated in August, issued a news release this afternoon "extending a hand to Bloquistes who are upset" about the "less than democratic practices" of their party, and also chiding the Liberals for "le parachutage dans Hochelaga d’un économiste de Harvard".
The seat became vacant on the resignation of Ménard this past September 16, 2009 in order to run as borough mayor in Hochelaga during the Québec municipal elections that are now underway. The Prime Minister called the by-election this past Sunday for Monday, November 9. The Bloc's candidate will be the last one selected by the major parties in this riding.
We earlier reported on another case of a Bloc nomination candidate, Christian Gionet, who felt the party maneuvred him out of its nomination race in Haute-Gaspésie – La Mitis – Matane – Matapédia, QC, in favour of the leader's preferred candidate Jean-François Fortin last June.
While most media commentators have assumed the Bloc to be the likely winners in Hochelaga, it will be interesting to see whether this nomination race is little more than a distraction, such as the challenge Green Party leader Elizabeth May fought off last month, or whether (as the NDP appears to hope) it represents the opening of schism in the Bloc Québécois riding association.
One way to follow the race there that I've discovered is the Politics news page of Les Nouvelles Hochelaga Maissonneuve.
A candidate for the Bloc Québécois nomination is accusing leader Gilles Duceppe's office of trying to pressure him to drop out of the race, in advance of tomorrow night's contested nomination meeting to pick the party's candidate for next month's by-election in this east-end Montréal riding, reports Kathleen Levesque of Le Devoir this afternoon. The report has sparked the NDP's candidate to ask why the Bloc would "borrow the strategies of the Liberal Party" and whether this represents the "Coderrisation du Bloc québécois".
25-year Hochelaga resident and "confirmed sovereignist and social democrat", Jean Baribeau, has been running for the Bloc nomination since June. He told Le Devoir that he received a telephone call from a staff member in Duceppe's office Tuesday morning asking him to step aside, saying they wanted the Thursday meeting to be a big media event introducing Duceppe's endorsed candidate and recently-appointed economic advisor, former PQ Industry Minister Daniel Paillé.
Citing Duceppe's commitment of last month to hold an open nomination, Baribeau is refusing to stand down, and now refusing to return the calls of Duceppe himself, complaining that the Bloc has already been introducing Paillé as their candidate, and that they've sent in an experienced Bloc organizer to run his nomination campaign. Another nomination candidate, Benoît Dumuy, who was an aide to the former Bloc M.P. in the riding, Réal Ménard, and who had also been selling memberships since June, was already persuaded by Duceppe in early September to withdraw from the race, and a fourth reported candidate Thérèse Ste-Marie also appears to be out of the race now. SMALL UPDATE: Indeed, she has withdrawn and endorsed M. Paillé, according to Les Nouvelles Hochelaga Maisonneuve, which unfortunately however got the nomination date wrong at the end of its story.
Meanwhile the NDP's Jean-Claude Rocheleau, who was renominated in August, issued a news release this afternoon "extending a hand to Bloquistes who are upset" about the "less than democratic practices" of their party, and also chiding the Liberals for "le parachutage dans Hochelaga d’un économiste de Harvard".
The seat became vacant on the resignation of Ménard this past September 16, 2009 in order to run as borough mayor in Hochelaga during the Québec municipal elections that are now underway. The Prime Minister called the by-election this past Sunday for Monday, November 9. The Bloc's candidate will be the last one selected by the major parties in this riding.
We earlier reported on another case of a Bloc nomination candidate, Christian Gionet, who felt the party maneuvred him out of its nomination race in Haute-Gaspésie – La Mitis – Matane – Matapédia, QC, in favour of the leader's preferred candidate Jean-François Fortin last June.
While most media commentators have assumed the Bloc to be the likely winners in Hochelaga, it will be interesting to see whether this nomination race is little more than a distraction, such as the challenge Green Party leader Elizabeth May fought off last month, or whether (as the NDP appears to hope) it represents the opening of schism in the Bloc Québécois riding association.
One way to follow the race there that I've discovered is the Politics news page of Les Nouvelles Hochelaga Maissonneuve.
Labels: Bloc Québécois, Hochelaga, NDP, Nov 9 2009 By-elections
posted by The Pundits' Guide at
3:06 PM
2 Comments:
I like the clever neologism Coderrisation employed by Rocheleau. It sounds a lot like the word English word cauterization and the French word cautérisation:
Cauterization is a medical term describing the burning of part of the body to remove or close off a part of it, which destroys some tissue, in an attempt to mitigate damage or bleeding, remove an undesired growth, or minimize other potential medical harmful possibilities such as infections.
Thanks for the comment, Scott. I'm trying to imagine all the political implications of that metaphor. Food for thought.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home