Duceppe Could Lead PQ Back to Government: Poll

He might have been a victim of the destruction of the Bloc Québécois, but Gilles Duceppe is still mightily popular on the provincial scene.

Hey, remember Gilles Duceppe? The former leader of the Bloc Québécois who might have sought the destruction of Canada but was still pretty affable and capable of making leaders' debates semi-watchable? Anyhow, a poll for QMI finds that he's still the most popular politician in Quebec, despite losing his seat in the May 2 election that saw his party lose its official status in Parliament. The poll finds that if Duceppe were to lead the provincial Parti Québécois into the next election, 37 per cent of the province would vote for him, 12 per cent higher than the next closest rival. The poll comes as PQ Leader Pauline Marois continues to lose the support of the separatist movement and Jean Charest's Liberal government somewhat unwillingly investigates the role of organized crime in the construction industry (spoiler alert: it's big!). If Duceppe were to lead the PQ, the Liberals would theoretically be bumped to third place with just 21 per cent support, making a PQ majority government possible. Coming in second is former PQ stalwart Francois Legault, who's set to announce a new party sometime this month. With Marois as leader, the PQ only has 20 per cent of the province's support. And we thought separatism was dead...