weaker party structure that would simply allow Bloc candidates to have their party designation appear on the ballot. The vision favoured by Plamondon ultimately won out, and the Bloc became a strong political organization throughout Quebec. Shortly after joining the BQ, Plamondon asked the federal government to apologize to the province of Quebec and provide financial compensation for those who were wrongly arrested under the War Measures Act in the 1970 FLQ Crisis. He later spoke against a bid by Izzy Asper to bring his Global Television Network to Montreal, arguing that the market was already saturated. In 1992, he described Mordechai Richler's book Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! as hate literature. Plamondon was charged with attempting to hire a prostitute during an undercover sting operation in April 1993. He claimed innocence, saying that the charge was the result of a "bad joke between friends which lasted 45 seconds," but nonetheless resigned as his party's house leader pending resolution of the matter. He was renominated as the Bloc candidate for Richelieu despite the controversy. Chrétien Government (1993–2003) Plamondon was re-elected without difficulty in the 1993 federal election, as the Bloc won fifty-four out of seventy-five seats in Quebec to become the official opposition in the House of Commons. The Liberal Party won a majority government under the leadership of Jean Chrétien. At his own request, Plamondon was left out of the Bloc's initial shadow cabinet. He pleaded guilty to the charge against him in April 1994, maintaining his innocence but adding that he simply wanted to resolve the matter as quickly as possible. He received an absolute discharge and does not have a criminal record. Plamondon co-chaired a funding and membership drive for the Bloc in early 1995. He opposed finance minister Paul Martin's austerity budget in the same year, arguing that it placed an unfair financial burden on the provinces to fight the federal deficit. He personally opposed the Chrétien government's gun registry legislation, which the Bloc supported, and he absented himself from the parliamentary vote that led to its passage. After a narrow federalist victory in Quebec's 1995 referendum on sovereignty, Lucien Bouchard left the Bloc Québécois to become leader of its provincial counterpart, the Parti Québécois (PQ). Plamondon initially favoured Bernard Landry to become the Bloc's new leader, arguing that he was the best positioned of all candidates to unite the party's different factions. Landry decided not to