If it turns out he is right. Will "Oh Canada" be booed at sporting, Etc., eve

Landry predicts Quebec independence

Les Perreaux

Canadian Press

Saturday, October 02, 2004

QUEBEC -- Quebec will be an independent country in five years, Parti
Quebecois Leader Bernard Landry predicted Friday at a meeting of Quebec
sovereigntists.

Though Landry has made similar predictions in the past, his comments raised
the spectre that another sovereignty referendum might immediately follow a PQ
win in the next Quebec election.

There are more than three years remaining in current premier Jean Charest's
mandate.

"Five years from now we will achieve national independence," Landry, 67, said
in a speech to a Quebec sovereignty group.

"If it were much longer, I wouldn't have the time to lead this extraordinary
movement. Believe me when I say five years, it's because I believe five years."

PQ leaders have been reluctant to commit to a sovereignty timeline since
their razor-thin defeat in the 1995 referendum. Former premier Lucien Bouchard
said he would wait for "winning conditions" before calling another referendum.

A tearful Bouchard quit as premier in 2001, saying he had failed to achieve
such conditions.

Landry also adopted the go-slow approach to sovereignty when he replaced
Bouchard.

But he has routinely fired up sovereigntists in recent years by starting
countdowns to take Quebec out of Canada, without declaring a referendum date.

In September 2001, Landry said he would love for Quebec to be a full-fledged
country participating in the Summit of the Americas to be held in Buenos Aires
in 2005.

At a party meeting in September 2002, he said he wanted Quebec

independence within 1,000 days, or three years.

But the deadlines were cast to the winds when the PQ was trounced by
Charest's Liberals in last year's election.

Following his election loss in April 2003, Landry launched a so-called
"season of ideas" to debate the PQ's approach to sovereignty and governance.

The debate within his party has put into question Landry's leadership and the
PQ's sovereignty strategy.

Former premier Jacques Parizeau proposed an aggressive new strategy that
would see the party move directly toward Quebec independence after a PQ election
victory.

The plan would eliminate the need for the sovereignty referendums that were
held in 1980 and 1995 and have long been the main element in PQ strategy.

Landry and other longtime PQ stalwarts suggested Parizeau's strategy is too
risky. Federal leaders said it's also illegal.

PQ legislature members have recently questioned the sovereignty movement's
appeal among young Quebecers.

Three young PQ members spent the summer interviewing young Quebecers and
wrote in a report that the movement is "outmoded, outdated and dilapidated" and
doesn't respond to the aspirations of young people.

Landry and Parizeau said Friday that sovereignty is the best tool to protect
Quebecers from the ravages of globalization, an issue that appeals to many
youths.

"Our health care system, our water, our cultural industries, these things
concern us all, will be debated at international forums this year, next year and
the year after," Parizeau said during a video-taped interview that was played
for the meeting.

Quebec is not at the table," he added. "Everyone understands that the
nation-state is the best protection against globalization."

Sovereigntist leaders said recent recycled buzzwords that have surfaced to
describe Quebec's relations with the rest of Canada won't satisfy nationalist
aspirations in the province.

Sovereigntists scoffed at Quebec's recent side deal on health care, hailed by
federalists as the dawn of a new era of asymmetrical federalism.

Federalists have used the term to describe a flexible arrangement that
recognizes Quebec's distinctiveness.

"They are drowning Quebec's specificity in distinctions without any
difference," said Gerald Larose, president of the Conseil de la souverainete du
Quebec.

"It just confirms that Canada does not recognize the Quebec nation or
culture."

The 10-year, $41.3-billion health deal stipulates that provinces co-operate
in establishing common standards to measure wait times, for such things as
surgery, by the end of 2005.

But the federal government signed a side deal with Quebec that allowed the
province to get the new federal funding with no strings attached.