The party was founded on impossible contradictions, which are finally tearing it apart. The BQ claimed it could best represent Quebeckers in Ottawa – but it was obvious that voting BQ could never be anything other than a protest vote. It meant electing MPs to the opposition benches, guaranteed. The party existed to further Quebec sovereignty – but it was never clear how going to Ottawa advanced that goal. And the less interested Quebeckers became in independence, the more the party soft-pedalled the cause. In its early days, it appealed to both hard nationalists and the generally disaffected. Since 2011, when its support abruptly shifted to other parties, especially the NDP, it has increasingly appealed to neither.
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