Canada: Levesque Lives: Quebec re-elects a separatist

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Along Montreal's bohemian Rue St. Denis, amid a joyous cacophony of automobile horns, youthful Quebecois shouted, "Quebec for the Quebeckers!" and "We want a country!" Inside the cavernous Paul Sauvé Arena, a blue and white sea of waving Quebec flags hailed the stunning victory of Premier René Lévesque over his Liberal Party challenger Claude Ryan in last week's provincial-assembly election.

Not since Lévesque's Parti Quebecois first swept to power 4½ years ago had there been such a spontaneous outpouring of French-Canadian nationalism. Coming only eleven months after voters delivered a resounding non in a referendum on the issue of Quebec separatism, the election amounted to political rebirth for Lévesque. It seemed to establish his party's vision of an independent Quebec as a driving force in national as well as provincial politics. Said the victor: "We are no longer an accident of history."

That judgment may prove to be somewhat premature. In fact, Lévesque, 58, based his campaign on a promise that he would seek no new separatist initiative during his second term. Instead, the personable former TV newsman shrewdly concentrated on his administration's corruption-free record, its successful reforms in agricultural and consumer policies and its plans for the province's economic development. His folksy, fast-talking style on the stump also provided an effective contrast to Liberal Ryan's relatively restrained and cerebral campaign discourses on the benefits of closer economic ties with the federal government in Ottawa.

Lévesque's tactics paid off handsomely: the Parti Québecois won an impressive 80 seats in the 122-seat legislature compared with 67 in the outgoing assembly. Moreover, the victory was accepted with equanimity by the losers. There was no trace of the near panic that followed Lévesque's 1976 election, when many Quebeckers hastily transferred their assets to U.S. banks in fear of possible devaluation or other economic turmoil.

Whether Lévesque will be able to maintain his pledge to keep the troublesome genie of separatism in its bottle is another matter. Keenly aware of public sensitivities on the subject, Lévesque appears genuinely determined not to bring it up at least until the 1985 elections. Says he: "People don't change their minds on a fundamental question like that in a few months. It's not like changing your shirt. " His critics, however, are skeptical Ryan warned Quebeckers last week that they could expect another four years "on the tightrope of uncertainty and confrontation." Canada's Health and Welfare Minister Monique Bé gin, a political ally of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, called Lévesque "a wolf in sheep's clothing" and asserted flatly that "Lévesque cannot be trusted to keep his word."