Bloc leader kicks off Canada tour

A deal like the Meech Lake Accord, which would have recognized Quebec as a distinct society, wouldn't be enough today to persuade Quebecers to reject sovereignty, says Gilles Duceppe.

"Certainly not," the Bloc Québécois leader told The Canadian Press in an interview. "We're no more a distinct society. We're a distinct nation."

'A lot of times I'm hearing people say, `Too bad you're a separatist because we agree with you on many points,' so this is good for the future.' —Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe

And even if any new constitutional offers were forthcoming, they just wouldn't be good enough, Duceppe said.

"The best thing is to have two sovereign countries collaborating in a large economic body, and even political body, just like the countries did in Europe," he said.

Duceppe begins the first leg of a cross-country tour Tuesday to get Canadians' opinions about Quebec sovereignty, starting with a meeting with New Brunswick university students in Fredericton.

He'll also talk to francophone organizations and visit the C.D. Howe Institute, a Toronto-based think-tank, as well as appear on a TV interview show.

After visiting the Atlantic provinces and Toronto this week, he'll head to Calgary next week, where he'll meet Tom Flanagan, a University of Calgary political scientist and former chief of staff for Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Duceppe will wind up his tour in Vancouver.

Bloc leader says he enjoys debating Canadians

Duceppe says he's always been given a polite reception in the rest of Canada and has had some good discussions even if people don't agree with his opinion.

"A lot of times I'm hearing people say, `Too bad you're a separatist because we agree with you on many points,' so this is good for the future," he said.

'The best thing is to have two sovereign countries collaborating in a large economic body, and even political body, just like the countries did in Europe.' —Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe

Duceppe insisted it's vital for Quebec to maintain links with the rest of the country because of what he calls the inevitability of sovereignty.

He also said it's important to make such a trip now because it has been 20 years since the Meech Lake Accord died from a lack of support in some provincial legislatures.

"It's very clear that all those discussions about the place of Quebec in the rest of Canada, for the rest of Canada, are settled," he said. "That's not the case for Quebec."

Despite Duceppe's insistence that sovereigntists need only to build on their traditional 40 per cent support and crack the magic percentage of 50 per cent plus one in a referendum, independence has been far from the tip of the average Quebecer's tongue.

Quebec Liberal Premier Jean Charest has a majority government and doesn't need to call the next election until 2013, while sovereignty is on the back burner with the Parti Québécois in opposition.

The cause also took a hit from its former champion in February, when Lucien Bouchard, a Bloc co-founder, suggested sovereignty is not attainable and Quebec should focus on more pressing social problems.

A poll released soon after indicated two-thirds of Quebecers agreed with the former premier, who appeared close to taking the province out of Canada in the 1995 referendum.