WATCH: Gilles Duceppe is back! After stepping down following the 2011 federal election, Gilles Duceppe is reclaiming his job as head of the Bloc Québécois. Mike Armstrong has more.
The Bloc Quebecois has called a news conference for this morning in Montreal where Gilles Duceppe is expected to announce his return as leader of the party.
Duceppe held that post for 14 years from 1997 until the sovereigntist party was nearly wiped off the electoral map in 2011.
The party won a mere four seats that year as Jack Layton’s NDP roared through the province and even Duceppe lost the Montreal riding he had held since 1990.
The Bloc currently has just two MPs out of 75 in Quebec and has been rife with division since Mario Beaulieu’s election as BQ leader in 2014.
A source has told The Canadian Press that Beaulieu will remain in the fold as party president and he is expected to join Duceppe at today’s news conference.
The Bloc was born in 1991 and ran a full slate of candidates in the 1993 election, winning 54 of the 75 seats under then-leader Lucien Bouchard. Under Duceppe, the party won 44, 38, 54, 51 and 49 seats before the 2011 meltdown.
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