As the curtain fell on the last federal election of the 20th century, we all knew that an era was ending. The Reform Party was gone. So was Preston Manning. The NDP, a once proud voice for Canada's working class, was weak and enfeebled and hissing out its death rattle.
Liberalism, as Trudeau understood it at least, had long since passed away. And Jean Chretien, just weeks short of his 67th birthday, was entering his last term as Prime Minister. Only Joe Clark, as strange as that may sound, seemed eternal.
The results in Quebec on election night, meanwhile, showed that an era was ending there as well. Founded in 1991, the separatist Bloc Québécois, once the second largest party in the House of Commons, was reduced to just 37 seats -- a dead heat with the federalist Liberals. Separatism, it seemed, was fading with the millennium.
Today, Lucien Bouchard will make it official. The Great Right Hope, the erstwhile Mulroney cabinet minister who was able to unite conservatives with socialists under the umbrella of sovereignty will call it quits.
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And separatism, like the working class radicalism of English Canada, will begin that long downward spiral into squabbles over when the revolution will occur and who will be king when it does.
Bouchard, of course, will go on with his life. At 62 he is unlikely to practice law any longer. But as a retired premier, he will no doubt find work on the board of one multi-national or another seeking to maintain a presence in the Quebec economy. And the sequel to his 1992 memoir, À visage découvert, will probably top the best-seller list in its category -- in both official languages.
His legacy, however, will never be satisfactorily defined. In English Canada his memory will continue to divide us. In French Canada it will be even worse. In English, he will be the villain who nearly destroyed the country. In French, he will be the separatist who refused to separate, the man who compromised with federalists and nearly destroyed le pays.
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Politically, no one will replace him. No one will be able to replace him. The Parti Québécois will never elect another conservative to lead their essentially socialist party. Conservatives will never again belong to the PQ unless they are again in control. The coalition which Lucien Bouchard crafted in the 1990s will dissipate.
Lucien Bouchard is history now. And so in all likelihood is separatism as a significant political movement in Canada.
© Brent Johner. Originally published on Canadian History on About.com, January 2001. Reprint rights available.
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