From: Gene McAloon 

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:06:08 -0400, "John Beamish"  wrote:

>That's a long, roundabout answer.  The short one:  there's no way short of
>hell freezing over that the Conservatives would have tried to form an
>alliance with the BQ.
>
>The BQ are perceived in the provinces-other-than-Quebec (commonly referred
>to as "the ROC" -- "the Rest Of Canada") as a party
whose sole interest is
>in seceding.  Any alliance with them would have been drinking from a
>poisoned chalice.  It would have been a case of getting power today at the
>cost of never having power again.

I believe that is more an expression of your attitude towards the Bloc than
anything having to do with reality. That reality is that, had the
Conservatives gotten more votes than the Libs, they could have governed
only by forming a coalition. The only possible coalition partner would be
the Bloc.  Therefore, they would have joined with the Bloc. The Bloc knew
that, which explains the statement by its leader that he would cooperate
with the Conservatives in a coalition only on an issue by issue basis. A
coalition there most certainly would have been.

Nor is it true that the Bloc is seen as solely a party that wants separation and
cares nothing about anything else. The Bloc is in fact a force in
Parliament on many issues. But as a minority party it can never hope to get
what it wants without supporting one or another party, whether in a
coalition or not. Naturally the party most likely to help it is the one
party which really wouldn't be at all sorry to see the francophones leave
the country, the Conservatives. It would be a natural fit for both, despite
their placements on the political spectrum.

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5