OTTAWA - Fresh from a muscular showing in Quebec byelections, the government's political minister for the province dismissed the Bloc Quebecois as useless.
The Conservatives will now be gunning for more than three-dozen Bloc Quebecois ridings in an attempt to secure themselves a majority government in the next election.
But Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon wasn't waiting for a campaign to come out with his guns blazing against his sovereigntist adversaries and their leader Gilles Duceppe on Thursday.
"Is he useful in Ottawa? No, he's not useful in Ottawa,'' Cannon said in an interview.
"It's as simple as that. He's not useful in Ottawa.''
Same goes for his party -- which was founded in 1990 and has been a dominant force in the province ever since.
"I don't think they play a vital role,'' Cannon said of the Bloc.
"They're a group who say they defend Quebec's interests but -- at the end of the day -- haven't delivered anything. They will never be able to deliver anything.''
In this week's byelections the Tories grabbed one riding that had been a Bloc fortress and nearly took another one they'd lost by 32 percentage points in 2006.
While the results suggest Conservatives are struggling to penetrate urban Montreal, this week's results have them eagerly eyeing about 40 ridings in the province's francophone heartland.
One senior Bloc MP said the province's political history suggests the Tories might want to curb their enthusiasm.
He also noted that a large number of Quebecers believe in independence and said they deserve a democratic vehicle to voice their opinion in Ottawa.
"Every six months people announce the end of the Bloc,'' said Pierre Paquette, who is touted as the party's possible leader-in-waiting.
"But since 1993 the majority of MPs sent to Ottawa from Quebec are Bloc MPs. It's not some byelections that are going to change that.''
Cannon is aware of the province's recent electoral track record.
But he said things have changed in Quebec -- and he credits his own party for helping to rebuild federalism in the province.
"The country has never been as strongly united as it is now,'' he said.
"Have you heard (the Parti Quebecois) call for a referendum? I haven't. I haven't heard Gilles Duceppe speak on that issue, and he was supposed to be here in Ottawa defending Quebec's interests but at the same time calling for a referendum.''
He said independence is being thwarted by his government's co-operative federalism -- which includes cash transfers to the provinces, the recognition of a Quebecois nation, and giving the province a seat at the United Nations cultural forum.
To which Paquette replies: Who would ever have raised these issues in Ottawa if it wasn't for the Bloc?
"They wouldn't have come from the Conservatives, the Liberals, or the NDP,'' Paquette said. ''We raised them.''
As for the Bloc's political legitimacy, he said Quebec wants no return to the days when Pierre Trudeau's Liberals held 74 of the province's 75 seats -- and nobody in Parliament would raise Quebec's opposition to his constitutional reforms.
"An important number of Quebecers believe in indepedence. It's normal that on the federal scene there is a party that represents them,'' he said.
But Cannon said Quebecers are no longer talking about sovereignty, and are tired of the politics of confrontation epitomized by the decade-old tussle between the Bloc and the Liberals.
The Tories' byelection success has observers speculating the government might be trying to trigger an election in a confidence vote next month.
None of the opposition parties has offered any indication that they will support the throne speech and _ if they all vote against it -- the country will head to the polls in a general election.
But Cannon said an election is all up to the opposition.
"We are not looking to engineer our own defeat,'' he said.
