LEVIS, Que. - The Bloc Quebecois is losing its relevance as Quebecers grow increasingly tired of protest politics, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said Wednesday.
"Quebecers now have the taste for an action vote rather than a protest vote,'' Dion said after a meeting with local party organizers in Levis, Que., just south of Quebec City.
"In the next election, we'll ask who can form the better government,'' Dion said. "In this debate, between the right-wing politics of Mr. Harper and the centrist politics that we propose, the Bloc will no longer be relevant.''
The Liberal leader has been touring Quebec in recent days with the aim of readying Liberal forces in the province for a possible federal election this spring.
Dion reacted skeptically to a newspaper report suggesting Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government will wait until 2008 to call an election.
"I'll believe it when Mr. Harper stops making attack ads against me, or when he doesn't provoke a confidence vote by presenting to us a bill he knows is unacceptable to the three opposition parties.''
In the January 2006 election, the Bloc won 51 seats, the Liberals 13 and the Tories 10. An Independent took one seat.
The Tories will wait to call an election in order to gauge their support in Quebec through federal three byelections, said a report published Wednesday in Montreal La Presse.
Two ridings -- one in Montreal and one east of the city -- are currently vacant. Another riding in the Lac St-Jean region, north of Quebec City, will open up in June when Bloc Quebecois MP Michel Gauthier steps down.
