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News Sports Radio TV My Region Watch Listen Member Centre: Login | Sign Up Gilles Duceppe, elegant separatist CBC News Story Tools: EMAIL | PRINT | Text Size: S M L XL | REPORT TYPO | SEND YOUR FEEDBACK | Gilles Duceppe was the first politician ever... More

News Sports Radio TV My Region Watch Listen Member Centre: Login | Sign Up Gilles Duceppe, elegant separatist CBC News Story Tools: EMAIL | PRINT | Text Size: S M L XL | REPORT TYPO | SEND YOUR FEEDBACK | Gilles Duceppe was the first politician ever directly elected to the House of Commons on a sovereigntist platform. He won a 1990 byelection in the Montreal riding of Laurier-Sainte-Marie, running officially as an Independent but really under the banner of the fledgling Bloc Québécois, which had just been formed but not formally registered.   That byelection followed the collapse of the Meech Lake accord and the formation of the Bloc by an informal group of former Tory and Liberal MPs under the leadership of the charismatic Lucien Bouchard. Duceppe, who had spent much of his adult life casting about for a party that reflected his left-wing idealism, had finally found a political home. After Bouchard resigned in late 1995 to become leader of the Parti Québécois and Less