I'm showing this video again because starting at about 1:25, you'll hear Gilles Duceppe discuss a coalition proposed to him by Stockwell Day in 2000. Naturally Stocky denied it saying that it would go against his very DNA to make a deal with Separatists.
Well call in CSI because this little worm just spilled his DNA all over the place.
Back when he was running for the top job as leader of the Alliance Party, Day did in fact try to make a deal with the Bloc to assume power if Jean Chretien won a minority. Jason Kenney was his right hand man at the time and since it was splashed across leading newspapers of the day, he had to have known about it, assuming he can read.
In Trevor W. Harrison's book; Requiem for a lightweight: Stockwell Day and the Image of Politics, he discusses the controversy.
"Day repeatedly journeyed to Quebec ... During August and September, Day stepped up these efforts, going even further to suggest the Alliance party welcome Quebec separatists and might even consider forming a national coalition government with the Bloc Quebecois .... But Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe said he wanted nothing to do with Day whose values (re: gay rights, abortion, youth justice) Duceppe described as "inspired by the United States..."
Mr. Harrison lists as sources two newspaper articles: "The Report, August 28, 2000" and "Bloc leader denounces Day's ideas" Edmonton Journal August 14, 2000.
Neither of these pieces were available online, but I did stumble across this little gem from the New York Times, no less:
Rightist Shocks Canadians By Flirting With Separatists
By JAMES BROOKE
August 3, 2000
Stockwell Day's summer vacation in Quebec was going well. Every day, the rising star of Canada's right appeared on French language television, chatting in francais with his language immersion teachers, fielding reporters' questions about his politique fiscale, or posing for photographs with the eternal friend of language students, le dictionnaire Larousse.
Then the athletic Mr. Day, a former treasurer from Alberta, clumsily stepped on a classic Quebec land mine.
With newspapers reporting ''informal negotiations'' between his party, the Canadian Alliance, and the Bloc Quebecois, whose stated goal is to make Quebec an independent nation, Mr. Day refused to rule out teaming up with the Bloc in coalition after general elections, expected next spring, in order to dislodge the governing Liberals.
''An unholy alliance with people who don't believe in the country,'' fumed Allan Rock, Canada's health minister, and an aspirant for leadership one day of the Liberals.
Undeterred by Mr. Day's hurried disavowal of any electoral alliance, Stephane Dion, the leader of the Liberal government's unity drive, said, ''It's playing with Canada, and you don't play with your country.''
As Canada continues to be haunted by the lingering separatist threat, the sharpest rebukes came from some of Mr. Day's closest backers.
''The Canadian Alliance leader needs to stop playing footsie with Quebec separatist leaders right now,'' thundered the The National Post, which has more commonly been a cheerleader for Mr. Day.
In an interview on Tuesday, Conrad Black, chairman of The National Post, said the strategy would not work. ''It makes it too easy for the Liberals to represent him as a separatist fellow traveler, ambiguous about the future of the country.''
The misstep comes as Mr. Day's party, the Alliance Canadienne, as it is called here, starts to expand beyond its western roots, becoming Canada's dominant conservative party. In an Angus Reid poll released last weekend, the Alliance had more than doubled its support since March, with the support of 24 percent of those polled, the highest figure for any opposition party in almost five years. The poll also indicated that Alliance is now the most popular opposition party from the Pacific Coast to the Ontario-Quebec border.
In Quebec, Canada's second-most populous province, the poll indicated that in two months voter preference for the Alliance had risen from 1 percent to 8 percent. In this socially liberal province, Mr. Day has avoided talking about his opposition to abortion, gay rights and gun control. Instead, he has focused on issues dear to Quebec's voters like cutting taxes, reducing the number of paroles for criminals and deporting illegal immigrants.
In addition, Mr. Day, long an advocate of decentralism, has pitched his anti-Ottawa message to Quebec's ''soft nationalists'' -- the one-third of voters here who want more autonomy, but not outright independence, suggesting, for instance, that provinces be given control over tax money they raise for health, education and social welfare.
Overlooked in the flurry of denials and cartoons about games of ''footsie,'' Michel Gauthier, leader of the separatists, denounced Mr. Day as a vote poacher. Mr. Gauthier warned his followers about the perils of a summer romance with this handsome language student, saying Mr. Day was ''trying to seduce Quebec voters.''
Against his very DNA, huh?
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