[LINK] "Is the PQ ready for the Pierre Karl Peladeau show?"

[rfmcdonald]

Looking to Québec and the fortunes of separatism, CBC's Michelle Gagnon notes the benefits and the pitfalls of Québec media mogul Pierre Karl Péladeau's expected bid for the Parti Québécois leadership.

The minute new candidate Pierre Karl Péladeau stepped off Pauline Marois' election bus one cold Sunday last March, the speculation erupted about his ambition to become leader of the Parti Quebecois one day.

[. . .]

Peladeau's notoriety only increased after he settled down with Julie Snyder, one of Quebec's biggest TV stars and most prolific television producers.

Together, they turned Quebec into an almost unparalleled example of media convergence in North America, and he has been a regular in the pages of supermarket tabloids, many of which he owns. Occasionally, he even makes it into glossier gossip fare like Paris Match, as he did in July alongside his daughter's new godmother, Céline Dion.

[. . . H]e's widely seen as the man who sank the PQ's chances of winning the last election with his untimely cri de coeur about making Quebec a country.

He is also considered a deeply divisive figure for his reputation as a union-busting boss with at least 14 lockouts to his credit.

In fact, many on the PQ left have hovered between skepticism and outrage at Peladeau's inclusion in the leadership ranks, claiming he will move the party to the right at the expense of the PQ's traditional social democratic base.