Boisclair quits as leader of Parti Québécois

[RedHot25]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/st...clair0508.html

Parti Québécois Leader André Boisclair resigned Tuesday after weeks of speculation about his political future following the party's plunge in the March election and a public spat with his Bloc counterpart, Gilles Duceppe.

...

Boisclair's leadership became a major issue after the PQ fell to third place in the legislature in the March provincial election. The party won only 36 of the 125 seats, while Mario Dumont's Action démocratique du Québec surged into second place with 41 seats.

Boisclair had also sparred openly of late with the Bloc Québécois leader, amid rumours that party insiders were clamouring at Duceppe's door in a bid to recruit him for the PQ leadership.
....

Many PQ MNAs had trouble hiding their shock and surprise during the bombshell announcement, and several had tears in their eyes as they fled reporters who were looking for comments.

Shock and surprise? They are shocked and surprised over this? After they got kicked to the curb in the election (to an extent), and he was starting to publicly feud with Duceppe?

[BlackEleven]

I don't think anyone should be surprised at this. And unless they can find charasmatic guy with some leadership experience to replace him, I see the PQ continuing its downward spiral. I think this will be the case as I really don't see anyone in the PQ party right now that can take the reigns.

[Slava]

The going rationale seems to be that Duceppe would resign in Ottawa and move over. He would do well for Quebecers (if they're into that sort of thing). I have always liked Duceppe, except for that whole breaking up the country thing.

Hopefully he goes to the PQ and they lose seats on the national end of things...

[BlackEleven]

I don't see Duceppe taking over the PQ unless he thinks they have a really good shot at winning and achieving separation. Otherwise, why would he want to jump from federal to provincial politics? And with the political climate the way it is in Quebec right now, I don't see any reason why he would think he could win a referendum.

I think the Duceppe rumours are coming more from the desperation of PQ supporters for a real leader than they are from actual facts.