Le Bloc Québécois: A Niche Party

On August 15, 2021, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, launched his troops on the election campaign. The Prime Minister of Canada made no secret of his ambition to seek a majority. Governing with the opposition parties and forming coalitions on several issues was not an optimal option for the Liberal Party. The goal of the Bloc Québécois (BQ), a sovereigntist party representing Quebec’s interests in Ottawa, was to stop the ambition of the Prime Minister and get a majority of the votes from Québec voters. The Premier of Québec, François Legault, made it clear that he was supportive of the Conservative Party simply because his analysis was that the CPC had a platform closer to the Québec demands. Therefore, the Bloc had to face a wind coming from Ottawa and one coming from Québec City. To the surprise of everyone, the English debate sparked the attention of Québec voters because of the opening comments made by the moderator that Québec laws are discriminatory—especially concerning the secularism of the state. These remarks sparked debates over the values of Quebecers and the francophobia in the rest of Canada. This unexpected event helped the BQ to regain momentum at the end of the campaign and motivated voters to support BQ candidates. This chapter considers the BQ campaign and how its leader, Yves-François Blanchet, targeted Québec voters, especially after the English language debate. It considers the political marketing and branding strategies the BQ successfully deployed to differentiate itself from both the Liberals and Conservatives and how, once again, the BQ was able to over-perform expectations. As was the case in 2019, this was less to do with the political strategy of the BQ and more to do with a Quebec values-based marketing that emphasized linguistic and cultural brand focus to the detriment of the other campaigns.