Seven Oaks Magazine.

Thierry Larrivee is the Bloc Québécois candidate in LaSalle-Emard, Paul Martin's riding. Seven Oaks editor Charles Demers asked Larrivee about going head-to-head with the prime minister, and about the Bloc's policies on a range of issues.

You probably saw the election results from the last time, and, yes, the Liberals got a very good score, I cannot deny this. . . . An electoral campaign is a good opportunity to reach the citizens and to present our positions: It's not only about winning a seat in the Parliament. So, we take every opportunity that's given to us to talk about our options and to build bridges with different communities.

2. The popular perception in English Canada is that the only reason Québec is going to vote for the Bloc is because of the sponsorship scandal. Is that true at all?

No, not at all, because the only party that is there to represent the consensus and the issues that the vast majority of people in Québec agree on is the Bloc Québécois.

3. What about the overwhelming opposition in Québec, last year, to the war and the fact that the Liberal party has been very cloudy as to their position on the war and towards American foreign policy?

Yes, I think that cloudy is the word. The Bloc MPs were in the streets, walking with the militants, to say no to this illegal war against Iraq. Now, the Liberals will say, in the campaign, that they were against the war as well because they didn't send anybody. But if you look carefully, you can say David Pratt, the new minister of defence, was at that time for the war. So, the Liberals try to say that if Stephen Harper were prime minister, we would have been part of that war, but there are some nuances.

4. Stephen Harper has said he wants his Conservative party to make big gains in Québec. Is there any chance of that happening?

Well, I don't know how the campaign will go, but I doubt that there will be any chance for him to make any gains just because you suddenly say during a campaign that you hear what Québécois have to say and you are willing to discuss the issues. Over the past years, we've seen that we are diametrically the opposite of what the Conservatives think. We are for decriminalizing marijuana, we are for freedom of choice for gay marriage, we were the ones pushing the Kyoto protocol.

5. A lot of those are also the planks of the NDP. If the two parties had the numbers to do it, would the Bloc Québécois consider working with the NDP as the official opposition?

I don't think it would be really possible because one of the things about the Bloc Québécois is that we are the only party that states that Québec is a different society. Not a better one or a worse one, but a different society, and none of the parties recognize this. And the NDP is not different from the other parties in this way, so it's not possible for us to work with them. So, they would have to make a big change.

6. Is the Bloc still a sovereigntist party or just a party representing Québec's interests in Ottawa?

No, it's still a sovereigntist party. We are there to prepare sovereignty, and because one person out of two in Québec is a sovereigntist, and there is no taxation without representation, as they say. So, we are legitimate to be there. First of all, to defend the option, and also to defend the consensus that is made in Québec. And we are also there to prepare, because after the referendum, after Québec becomes a country, we will have to work together. There is no Berlin Wall that will be built.

7. One of the major projects completed by the provincial government, the Parti Québécois, was the nation-to-nation treaty with the Cree. Where does the Bloc stand on Native sovereignty in Canada and Québec?

Well, I think there's a lack of understanding of the situation of the Native people on the federal level. First of all, they take it as a whole, whereas in Québec we already consider that every nation is a nation. We recognized 11 nations, I think; it was back in '85. So I think it was a big step to recognize that a Mohawk is not a Cree, and that a Cree is not an Algonquin.