It was the middle of the night that the Bloc Québécois realized they had achieved the improbable. For weeks, the separatist party in Canada’s Francophone province had been campaigning hard to steal an electoral district in Montreal long held by the Liberals.
When the trickle of votes finally stopped on that September evening, the Bloc’s Louis-Philippe Sauvé had emerged victorious by a narrow margin of 200 votes.
Chastened by the loss, then prime minister Justin Trudeau admitted his Liberals had “a lot of work to do”. The back-to-back blows reflected a governing party in tatters and a leader losing his grip on power.
And to party faithful, the Bloc’s win reflected an excitement the separatist movement was once again in ascendance.
Six months later, as Canada finds itself in the middle of a federal election campaign, the heady days of the Bloc’s growing popularity are over. Donald Trump’s effort to trash his country’s relationship with Canada have led to dramatic realigning of allegiances, with a swell in Canadian pride washing over regional differences.
On a recent afternoon, the district of Verdun was bustling and the sun was shining on election signs for major politic...
[Short citation of 8% of the original article]