Apraham Niziblian, Bloc candidate

Friday, December 2, 2005 Page A8
Globe and Mail
By DANIEL LEBLANC

Sovereigntists join in wooing ethnic voters to Bloc's side

MONTREAL -- Gilles Duceppe and André Boisclair shared the stage last night at a rally in Montreal where the two sovereigntist leaders made a strong pitch to ethnic communities to support the Bloc Québécois on election day.

Mr. Duceppe, the leader of the Bloc, pointed to his party's candidates with origins in Haiti, Armenia, Cameroon, Lebanon and China who are running against the Liberals in this election.

"This is the modern Quebec, a Quebec of all colours, all accents and that has French as the common public language," he said.

"This is modern Quebec and this is what we're telling the Liberals, 'Gone are the days when you have the votes of immigrant Quebeckers in the pocket.' You can't take people for granted, you can't take things for granted," Mr. Duceppe said.
[...]
Niziblian Apraham, the Bloc candidate in the riding of Bourassa, is a second-generation Armenian running against Liberal MP Denis Coderre. Mr. Apraham said the Bloc is reaping the rewards of years of work in ethnic communities.

"The reality is we're all Quebeckers and we're fighting the same cause," he said in an interview. "The Bloc isn't buying our votes with fridges like in the good old days of the Duplessis regime. They're saying, 'This is what Quebec politics are about, study it, learn the history, and make your own conclusions.' "
[...]

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