French debate stirs up Que. constitution issue

The leaders' French-language debate sparked heated exchanges on Quebec's identity, stirred up more coalition talk and jousting over Canada's military and spending priorities as the party chiefs sparred for a second night.

"Sovereignty is not something bland and meaningless," Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe said to his political opponents during the two-hour debate in Ottawa. "If it's good for Canada, why is it not good for Quebec?"

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper pointed to his party's move to recognize Quebec as a nation within a united Canada, but Duceppe said he sees other nations around the world getting their own countries and pointed to the fact Quebec has never signed on to the Canadian constitution of 1982.

"Each nation has the politics of its interests," Duceppe said.

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