Revolutionary Moderation

Finally on the board



Gilles Duceppe is the only leader of the four who had previous experience leading his party through a federal election. It should be no surprise that he's managed to lead the cleanest race gaffe-wise... he knows the ropes. He knows about the traps of a campaign, which, as illustrated above, sometimes come in the form of a net.



The Bloc's been running on the theme that electing BQ candidates was the best way to represent Quebec interests in Ottawa. This isn't a referendum on sovereignty, Duceppe repeated, as often as he could.



Last week, the leader of the provincial Parti Quebecois, Bernard Landry, said that maybe it is a referendum, or that at least a strong showing for the BQ would lead to one. If I could have given gaffe points for that, I would have, but like Klein's health care ponderings in Alberta, I can hardly make federal parties pay for their provincial counterparts, however dim-witted.



That's why the Gaffe-O-Meter thanks BQ candidate Francois Rebello. Thanks, Francois. You're a nobody, so PROM=1, but you really could not have found a worse moment to decide the party song sheet was for someone else, and declare this federal election a sovereignty vote precursor. SIG=2, though I was tempted to wait and charge you three if the Bloc falls below fifty-five seats. Total, two gaffe points.



(For those who are wondering why I'm not gaffing up Conservative MP Randy White's comments about sec. 33, it was good news for Randy - the comments were committed to film three days before the writ was dropped. We're only hearing about them now.)