MONTREAL -- A split has emerged in the Harper government over a fundamental principle: the rules governing the potential breakup of Canada.
The Conservatives' senior Quebec minister declared in two media interviews Monday that a 50-per-cent-plus-one vote for separation is enough for a province to secede, and another Quebec minister said he had no opinion on the subject.
The comments fly in the face of longstanding federal policy under the Clarity Act, which declares that the federal Parliament would require a clear referendum question and clear result for any province to secede.
They also come after the Conservative government has repeatedly scolded the opposition NDP -- with its heavy contingent of Quebec MPs -- for being wishy-washy on the Clarity Act.
The NDP gleefully circulated transcripts of Denis Lebel's remarks in a TV and radio interview.
In those interviews, the Tories' Quebec lieutenant was being asked about a court case over secession rules in which the feds are siding against the Quebec government.
A Montreal radio host repeatedly asked Lebel, who was trying to change the subject, whether as a Quebecer he believed 50 per cent plus one was enough.
Finally, Lebel bit at one point. When he was asked whether he considered 50 per cent plus one "clear" enough, he said: "We've always said we'd leave that to Quebecers but, yes, it is for me."
"The Government of Canada has a responsibility there to defend the rights of Canadians," he added. "And for sure, I'm a Quebecer who wants to work with Quebec, but I knew right off the bat that the Marois government would use this file to advance her 'sovereigntist governance' strategy.
"It's not necessarily great timing -- the week where we deliver a throne speech everyone liked, and we signed a deal (on free trade with Europe) that we believe will mark history."
He later repeated the remark in a TV interview with former politician Mario Dumont. Lebel told Dumont that he was "comfortable" with the 50-per-cent-plus-one standard.
Later in the day, junior minister Maxime Bernier was asked by reporters whether he had an opinion on the 50-per-cent-plus-one principle and he replied: "No. What I am telling you is that, for now, I am keeping my opinion to myself."
He said he first wants to see what happens in the Quebec court case, in which the feds have sided with an Anglo-rights group against the Parti Quebecois' 2000 legislative response to the Clarity Act.
The pro-independence provincial government quickly pointed out the glaring contradiction in federal policy.
"Ministerial solidarity," tweeted the PQ's intergovernmental affairs minister, Alexandre Cloutier. "Lebel dissociates himself from his colleague, the justice minister, on 50% plus one. Let him repeat that in the Commons!"
The PQ is believed to be mulling an election call for Dec. 9 and pundits in Quebec have suggested the court case, in which federal lawyers are siding with Anglo-rights activists against the PQ, could prove to be an electoral godsend to the pro-independence party.
However, support for independence is low and the PQ usually avoids drawing attention to referendum talk during an election campaign.
In fact, in the last election where the Clarity Act was a major issue, the sovereigntist side suffered at the polls. In 2000, the Bloc Quebecois lost six seats.
The election result was so disappointing to sovereigntists that, weeks later, Lucien Bouchard resigned as premier and declared that he'd failed to revive the independence cause.
"I accept my share of the blame for failing to rekindle the flame and to impress upon our fellow citizens the gravity of the situation," Bouchard said in a solemn farewell address in January 2001.
"(Quebec voters) remained stunningly impassive despite federal offences."
This is now the second time in just over a month that Lebel finds himself squeezed between his cabinet colleagues and Quebec nationalist viewpoints.
In September, he said there was nothing that upset him in the PQ's religious-clothing plan -- which has raised the ire of some other cabinet colleagues.
He later added that, because the so-called values charter has not been tabled in the legislature yet, there are no specific details to get exercised over.
The PQ has signalled that it could be planning to mount an election campaign with identity as a central theme. The party's opponents, meanwhile, suggest it's only a diversionary tactic to make voters forget a lacklustre economy.
