ST-NARCISSE-DE-BEAURIVAGE, Que. - Prime Minister Stephen Harper championed his "open'' brand of federalism in Quebec's rural heartland Saturday night, finding an echo in the province's newly emboldened autonomists.
Harper -- speaking exclusively in French -- painted himself as a defender of the Quebec nation, and the federal leader best positioned to fight the province's separatist forces.
"When you are a nation, it is perfectly natural to be a nationalist,'' he told a crowd of more than 400 people gathered in the community centre of this farming town south of Quebec City.
"Open federalism is what we did when we asked the Canadian Parliament to recognize that Quebecois form a nation within Canada,'' Harper said.
Among the Tory supporters in the crowd were several newly elected members of the populist, right-wing Action democratique du Quebec.
The party emerged as Quebec's official Opposition following last month's provincial election and continues to make ambiguous calls for more autonomy for Quebec within Canada.
Local Conservative MP Jacques Gourde highlighted the natural affinities between the two parties, suggesting that together they represent a third-way to the federalism of the Quebec Liberals and the separatism of the Parti Quebecois.
"Their victory in the provincial elections, and our victory in the last federal election, illustrates that there is political earthquake in Quebec,'' Gourde said while introducing Harper.
"For the first time in a generation, Quebecers can make a real choice and they have the possibility to reorient our province in an entirely new direction.''
Harper's speech, meanwhile, was long on his government's accomplishments, but short on policy and made no mention of the brewing controversy over allegedly abusive treatment of Afghan militants detained by Canadian forces and turned over to local authorities.
Instead, the prime minister chose to brandish his credentials as a Quebec nationalist, hoping to make further inroads in a province that is central to Tory efforts to turn their minority government into majority.
"Real nationalists don't want destroy, they want to build,'' said Harper, who even at one point quoted Quebec's nationalist conservative premier of the 1940s and 1950s, Maurice Duplessis.
"The real nationalists aren't afraid of reality, they want to improve it, and that's what our government is doing.''
Saturday night's event came at the end of a difficult week for the Tories.
Environment Minister John Baird's new plan to fight greenhouse gases was panned by many as a series of half-measures, while Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor continued to come under fire over the Afghan detainees.
But Harper finally found a sympathetic ear Saturday night.
"There is nothing more precious than the family farm, which represents so well all the values on which our country has been built,'' he said to rapturous applause.
Harper -- who turns 48 on Monday -- was presented with a gift basket of local goods after his speech while the crowd sang a Quebecois happy birthday tune.
