Breaking newsAssassination attempt on Quebec’s premier-elect foiled

Published 5 September 2012

A man shouting “The Anglos are waking up” broke into a victory party held by Pauline Marois, Quebec’s premier-elect and the leader of the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ), after the party won the provincial election on Tuesday; the gunman missed Marois but killed one man and wounded two others; the PQ emerged as the largest party in the province, but it failed to win an outright majority; its minority government status means that it will not be able to push for a referendum on Quebec’s independence from Canada

An angry man in his early 60s Tuesday night broke into a Montreal’s Metropolis auditorium where the Parti Quebecois (PQ) was holding a victory party to celebrate the party’s victory in Tuesday’s provincial elections. The man, shouting “The Anglos are waking up” in both English and French, opened fire at Pauline Marois, the party’s leader and future Quebec premier, while she was making a speech to thank supporters. He missed her, but killed one person and wounded two.

The assailant also threw what reporters say looked like a Molotov cocktail, lighting fire at the corner of the auditorium.

Marois’s body guards ushered her to safety, and the assailant was apprehended by security guard. The provincial police is tight-lipped about the suspect and his motives.

The separatist and left-leaning Parti Quebecois won the provincial elections in Quebec yesterday (Tuesday), ending a 9-year rule by the Liberal party. The PQ will form the new provincial government.

It will be a minority government, however, as the PQ won 54 of the 128 seats in the provincial legislature.

The minority status of the new government means that the PQ will have to moderate some of its more ambitious campaign promises, among them strengthening the status of the French language in the province; making it more difficult for non-Quebecois companies to own a majority stake in Quebec-based firm; raising personal income tax rates; and increasing substantially the royalties paid to mining companies in the northern part of the province.

The minority status also means that PQ will not be able to push for another referendum on the independence of Quebec. The issue of separation from Canada was tested in a referendum twice, in 1980 and in 1995, and failed both times. The 1995 referendum was especially close, with the “No” vote (that is, “no” to separation from Canada) winning by 50.58 percent to 49.42 percent. In the 1980 referendum, the “No” vote defeated the “Yes” vote 59.56% to 40.44 percent.

The new provincial government’s minority status, and the fact that the PQ won only 31.9 percent of the popular vote in Tuesday’s elections, means that support for the Quebecois separatism has dropped substantially since 1995.