Levesque Lives

Along Montreal's bohemian Rue St. Denis, amid a joyous cacophony of automobile horns, youthful Quebecois shouted, "Quebec for the Quebeckers!" and "We want a country!" Inside the cavernous Paul Sauve Arena, a blue and white sea of waving Quebec flags hailed the stunning victory of Premier Rene Levesque over his Liberal Party challenger Claude Ryan in last week's provincial-assembly election.

Not since Levesque's Parti Quebecois first swept to power 4 1/2 years ago had there been such a spontaneous outpouring of French-Canadian nationalism. Coming only eleven months after voters delivered a resounding non in a referendum on the issue of Quebec separatism, the election amounted to political rebirth for Levesque. It seemed to establish his party's vision of an independent Quebec as a driving force in national as well as provincial politics. Said the victor: "We are no longer an accident of history."

That judgment may prove to be somewhat premature. In fact, Levesque, 58, based his campaign on a promise that he would seek no new separatist initiative during his second term. Instead, the personable former TV newsman shrewdly concentrated on his administration's corruption-free record, its successful reforms in agricultural and consumer policies and its plans for the province's economic development. His folksy, fast-talking style on the stump also provided an effective contrast to Liberal Ryan's relatively restrained and cerebral campaign discourses on the benefits of closer economic ties with the federal government in Ottawa.

Levesque's tactics paid off handsomely: the Parti Quebecois won an impressive 80 seats in the 122-seat legislature compared with 67 in the outgoing assembly. Moreover, the victory was accepted with equanimity by the losers. There was no trace of the near panic that followed Levesque's 1976 election, when many Quebeckers hastily transferred their assets to U.S. banks in fear of possible devaluation or other economic turmoil.

Whether Levesque will be able to maintain his pledge to keep the troublesome genie of separatism in its bottle is another matter. Keenly aware of public sensitivities on the subject, Levesque appears genuinely determined not to bring it up at least until the 1985 elections. Says he: "People don't change their minds on a fundamental question like that in a few months. It's not like changing your shirt. " His critics, however, are skeptical Ryan warned Quebeckers last week that they could expect another four years "on the tightrope of uncertainty and confrontation." Canada's Health and Welfare Minister Monique Be gin, a political ally of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, called Levesque "a wolf in sheep's clothing" and asserted flatly that "Levesque cannot be trusted to keep his word."

Levesque's victory could not have come at a worse time for Trudeau. His controversial constitutional reform package, initiated after the Quebec referendum to strengthen Canada's federal government, has been tied up for six months Ottawa's Parliament. Six of the nation's ten provinces have challenged Trudeau's bill in provincial courts on the grounds that it would illegally curtail the traditional rights of the provincial governments. Moreover, Trudeau's efforts to bring provincial energy resources under greater federal control have sparked bitter separatist demonstrations in the oil-and gas-rich western provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Levesque's new mandate seemed certain to exacerbate such burgeoning anti-Ottawa sentiment

Last week eight provincial premiers, including the emboldened Levesque met in Ottawa to unveil their counterproposal for a "constitutional accord." At the insistence of Levesque, the premiers approved a provision that would legally require the unanimous consent of provincial governments for some federal initiatives and allow provinces to opt out of others altogether. Both measures, of course, would ensure continued provincial leverage over the federal government--precisely what Trudeau is trying to avoid. Ironically, the premiers' initiative had been undercut the day before, when Quebec's supreme court became the second to approve the legality of Trudeau's proposed reforms. With a measure of renewed confidence, Trudeau went on television to denounce the whole provincial plan as "a victory for those who want to move Canada slowly toward disintegration."

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