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Sunday, Nov. 29, 1998

Secession's future at stake in Quebec election Monday

Candidate favoring independence leads in polls

Associated Press

   MONTREAL - Quebec voters will make a momentous choice Monday between an incumbent provincial leader who favors independence and an underdog challenger seeking to end the threat of secession.
   If Premier Lucien Bouchard's Parti Quebecois wins the election, he has pledged to hold a vote on leaving Canada whenever he thinks that the separatists can win.
   Bouchard, though demonized in much of English-speaking Canada, is immensely popular in mostly French-speaking Quebec. The man with the difficult task of unseating him is Jean Charest, who left federal politics in March to become leader of the Quebec Liberal Party.
   Charest, one of the few Canadian politicians who can match Bouchard's charisma, jumped ahead in early opinion polls and was hailed in other provinces as the potential savior of Canadian unity.
   But Charest's lead evaporated, and poll after poll in recent days suggest the Parti Quebecois is poised to maintain a comfortable majority in the 125-seat legislature.
   Quebec's first referendum on secession was in 1980, and the separatists were crushed by a 60-40 margin. Three years ago, they tried again, and rattled the nation by receiving 49.4 percent of the votes.
   Charest, 40, is 19 years younger than Bouchard, and an eloquent orator in French and English. But the skills that served him well in federal politics have been less useful in Quebec, where provincial politicians are expected to do battle with the federal government.
   Charest began the campaign by emphasizing economics, saying the specter of another referendum was scaring away investment. But economics never became a defining issue. Bouchard made tax-cut promises of his own, and polls suggested most voters do not blame him for the often painful process of erasing the deficit.
   

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