| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 中國與亞太區域研究所 === 103 === The aim is to analyze the BQ electoral pledges found within its 1991 manifesto and electoral platforms from 1993 to 2011, and to see how that form has changed from document to document. The intent is to shed light on how this democratic actor sought to maintain its core convictions while balancing it against the needs of meeting the short- and long-term realities of a pluralistic elections system.
The primary data was collected through the BQ’s electoral campaign publications. Academic publications, along with newspapers, periodicals, books, and media outlets were used to help develop a more nuanced understanding the BQ’s actions.
The findings show that from1991 to 1993, the BQ identified secession as a significant preference for Québec voters, and strongly aligned with that sentiment. However in the 1997 federal campaign, with the failure of the 1995 referendum, the BQ needed to rebrand its messages of being the voice of Québec in Ottawa while maintaining its previous pledge commitments. The 2004 and 2006 campaigns would be a continuation of the BQ balancing the preferences of voters with its past commitments. However, those two campaigns would be the BQ’s most significant attempt at nurturing the development of secession as a preference once more while marginalizing explicit disintegration from its hard pledges. The 2008 electoral platform would see a shift in pledge distribution. The BQ made only one hard pledge: the Kyoto Protocol. The environment was an important preference for Quebeckers. However, conservative federal government pledged to ignore it completely.
Until 2011, the BQ had relatively successfully aligned itself with the preferences of Québec voters. A rise in economic and political hard pledges was identified in the 2011 campaign. The outcome was clear that voter preference had shifted and the BQ miscalculated, as the BQ’s closest left leaning competitor would secure much of the province. Leadership exhaustion was likely an attributable factor, as its role in shaping and communicating political messages is fundamental in persuading voters. The BQ subsequently lost its official party status significantly undermining its status as a viable option, and are trying to re-establish itself.
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