Mario, the 'right' man for Quebec?

Mario Dumont, who turned 33 last week, is the new wonder man. A poll in last Saturday's La Presse found that 35 per cent of respondents said he would make the best premier, beating Jean Charest's 28 per cent and Premier Bernard Landry's 23 per cent.

Which party would people vote for? Mr. Dumont's Action Démocratique du Québec, with 36 per cent, led the Liberals (29 per cent) and the PQ (23 per cent).

Last month, the ADQ won its second seat, in a by-election in the "safe" PQ riding of Saguenay, and it seems poised to win two, possibly three, new seats on June 17 when by-elections are held in four previously PQ ridings.

Who is this giant-killer? Mr. Dumont was president of the youth wing of the Quebec Liberal Party when, in the aftermath of Meech Lake, Robert Bourassa flirted with a referendum on secession if suitable "offers" of radical constitutional change were not forthcoming from the rest of Canada.

The Young Liberals took it seriously, and many were disillusioned when the premier then backed the weaker 1992 Charlottetown accord. Mr. Dumont bolted and helped found the ADQ in 1994.

He was its only successful candidate in the 1994 election that brought Jacques Parizeau to office. He joined the PQ and the Bloc Québécois in an agreement to hold a referendum on a question that would include an offer for Canada to form a "partnership" with a sovereign Quebec.

The result was tantalizingly close. But Mr. Parizeau resigned, and Lucien Bouchard, his successor, concentrated on putting Quebec's public finances in order rather than drive for secession. Public support for separation abated, and opinion firmly opposed a new referendum.

Mr. Dumont's ADQ then adopted a new position that a referendum would be divisive, and so it would "respect the 1995 referendum result and maintain a moratorium on a referendum on sovereignty." The party proposed, instead, to "establish a firm, open and respectful dialogue with our partners in the federation to achieve the optimal conditions for our economic and social development."

This placed the ADQ between the Liberals and the PQ, and it's been drawing support from federalists and separatists.

The ADQ also took, for Quebec, an unprecedented swing to the right, with promises to reduce the size of government, introduce a flat tax, abolish tenure for civil servants, weaken the power of municipal unions, introduce private- sector competition in health care and government services, give money vouchers to parents to enable them to choose private as well as public schools.

The ADQ also proposes a range of democratic reforms, including electing the prime minister directly by the vote of all citizens, proportional representation, fixed dates for elections, the power of initiative to trigger referendums and to recall an unsatisfactory representative.

The ADQ's program, in fact, is close in inspiration to that of the Canadian Alliance. Both would reduce Ottawa's interventions in provincial jurisdiction. Both are populist regarding democracy and economically conservative.