Posted at Monday, December 5, 2005  EDT  

Duceppe sparks war of words with Liberals Remarks about making Liberals disappear carried 'Nazi-like' tone, Lapierre says

TU THANH HA, 

BOUCHERVILLE, QUE. -- Paul Martin's Quebec lieutenant, Jean Lapierre, said yesterday that Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe spoke in a "Nazi-like" way when the separatist politician urged voters to wipe the Liberals off the Quebec electoral map.

"I heard and read Mr. Duceppe's remarks and I find there's a little Nazi-like tone to them," Mr. Lapierre told reporters.

He said Mr. Duceppe might have gotten carried away by his polling numbers and should withdraw his statement.

"For a guy who dreams of having his country, will it be the kind of one-minded country where voices that don't think like him have to disappear?"

Mr. Lapierre was meeting the media to react to a speech Mr. Duceppe made earlier yesterday to Bloc supporters in Boucherville.

Mr. Duceppe had addressed 600 delegates at a special campaign-oriented council meeting. "On Jan. 23, we can say, 'Fortunately, the Bloc is here. Fortunately we'll make the Liberals disappear,' " he said.

Speaking to reporters after his speech, Mr. Duceppe confirmed he was alluding to the electoral map when he spoke of making the Liberals "disappear."

Mr. Duceppe appeared defensive about the rare glitch in an otherwise tightly scripted campaign. "It was enthusiasm speaking when I used that expression," he said.

The Bloc Leader shrugged off suggestions that his words were reminiscent of Claude Garcia, the Quebec businessman who, in the early days of the 1995 referendum, called on federalists to "crush" separatists, a remark that backfired when it roused their foes.

"We'll see. We're very optimistic. We concede no riding," Mr. Duceppe said yesterday.

Mr. Duceppe conceded, however, that it remains "in the domain of miracles" to unseat every Liberal MP in Quebec.

Mr. Duceppe said that, because of the sponsorship scandal, the Liberals were the authors of their own misfortune in Quebec. "They made themselves disappear."

The Bloc has budgeted $5.1-million for the campaign. About $2.4-million will be spent on advertising, the bulk of which will be purchased after the holiday break.

With concerns about complacency and winter weather in mind, chief electoral organizer Michel Gauthier told the delegates that the party's main goal will be to get a maximum number of supporters to vote through advance polling.

Also speaking to delegates, Parti Québécois Leader André Boisclair thanked the Bloc for making inroads among two types of voters traditionally wary of the PQ: women and ethnic groups.

"That's money in the bank for our movement," Mr. Boisclair said.

Even if the Bloc doesn't win a riding, maximizing support at the ballot box will be lucrative for the party. Under political financing rules adopted while Jean Chrétien was prime minister, corporate donations (of which the Bloc never had much anyway) have been capped. Instead, each vote cast for a party translates into a $1.75 public subsidy.

Mr. Duceppe said yesterday he hoped to improve on the approximately 1.7 million votes his party received in the 2004 election (49 per cent of the votes in Quebec).

Still, the day was punctuated by public and private warnings that the party supporters shouldn't grow smug.

"In my riding, the enemy is abstention," one veteran Bloc MP confided.

The latest figures of the nightly tracking poll conducted by the Strategic Counsel for The Globe and Mail and CTV show the Bloc ahead of the Liberals in Quebec by 30 percentage points.

Mr. Duceppe's popularity is so solid that one Quebec newspaper headline on Saturday dubbed him a "secular saint."

A recurrent campaign theme will be the sponsorship scandal, with Mr. Duceppe peppering his speech yesterday with words like "corruption," "bribes" and "embezzling funds."

A similar idea appears in the negative radio ad campaign the Bloc unveiled yesterday.

Adapted from a traditional nursery rhyme, it begins with a stanza about "Liberal scandal" and concludes with "they want to buy our vote but they won't get it."