;Government backbencher Blais was elected to the Quebec legislature for the
Terrebonne division in the
1981 provincial election. The Parti Québécois won a
majority government in this election, and Blais entered the legislature as a
backbench supporter of
René Lévesque's government. He served on the party's executive during the mid-1980s. In 1981, the
federal government of
Pierre Trudeau reached an agreement with all provincial premiers except Lévesque to patriate the
Canadian constitution. Lévesque was not included in the final negotiations (which took place overnight at a constitutional summit in
Ottawa) and described the agreement as a betrayal. In a subsequent legislative debate, Blais likened the constitutional agreement to the 1759
battle of the Plains of Abraham and compared Trudeau and the other premiers to General
James Wolfe, who "climbed the banks of the
Saint Lawrence in the middle of the night to attack
Montcalm and his sleeping soldiers." The PQ faced an extremely divisive
internal debate as to its position on
Quebec independence in 1984. Some party members favoured a hardline stance, while others sought to win increased autonomy for Quebec within the Canadian federation (a position known as the "
beau risque"). Blais was not regarded as a hardliner in this period; he argued that the terms "separatist", "indépendantiste", and "sovereigntist" had different meanings and said that the PQ was "sovereigntist in a Canadian economic whole." The "beau risque" supporters won the debate (in the short term), and several of the more militant
Péquistes left the party. Blais served as
parliamentary assistant to the
minister of cultural communities and immigration from February 12 to October 23, 1985. ;Opposition backbencher Blais was re-elected in the
1985 provincial election as the PQ was defeated by the
Quebec Liberal Party. Fe was appointed as the PQ's environment critic in the
official opposition after the election. He criticized the Liberal government's passage of a law guaranteeing English-language health and social services in 1985, on the grounds that it would give Quebec's anglophone population the "hope of becoming once again a dominant minority." Blais fell out with PQ party leader
Pierre-Marc Johnson in 1987, after Johnson attempted to shift him from the environmental portfolio and subsequently dropped him from the
shadow cabinet entirely. Blais subsequently became affiliated with a dissident group of legislators who opposed Johnson's leadership, and, after Johnson resigned, he supported hardline
indépendantiste Jacques Parizeau's successful bid to lead the party. In the years that followed, Blais himself became more aligned the party's hardline separatist position. He was co-president of the PQ's fundraising efforts in early 1988. He was elected to a third term in the Quebec legislature in the
1989 provincial election, running in the division of
Masson after boundary changes. The Liberals were re-elected with a second consecutive majority government, and Blais was appointed as the PQ's communications critic. In 1990, he unsuccessfully called for the PQ to boycott
premier Robert Bourassa's commission on Quebec's constitutional future. ;Government backbencher (second time) Blais was re-elected again in the
1994 provincial election as the PQ returned to power until Parizeau's leadership. Following the election, he was appointed as the government's
regional delegate for the Outaouais. This was not a
ministerial position, although Parizeau said that it would be almost equal in power. One day after his appointment, Blais announced that he would make a decision on the location of a
promised casino for the Outaouais within ten days and that the PQ government would act on his decision. The ten-day deadline was not kept, although the PQ government later approved a casino for
Hull. Blais subsequently indicated that only companies with offices in Quebec would be able to work on the building's construction. Blais campaigned in favour of
Quebec sovereignty in the
Outaouais region in the buildup to the
1995 provincial referendum and highlighted the need for the Parizeau government to ensure that federal
civil service workers would have job security in a sovereign Quebec. In January 1995, he promised that the PQ would soon provide "irrefutable proof" that all federal civil servants would be hired by the Quebec public service in the event of Quebec sovereignty. (A representative of the
Public Service Alliance of Canada responded that a promise would not suffice and demanded a signed legal document. The PSAC and the PQ government reached an
agreement in principle in June.) Blais also took part in the Parizeau government's public commission on sovereignty during the same period. He suffered a
heart attack in March 1995, but was back at his desk the following week. Fellow legislator
Denis Perron said as Blais, "`For him, it's Quebec before everything else. Before himself, before his health." Blais himself said, "Politics and humor are my two drugs. That's what keeps me alive. That, and the hope of having a new country very soon." During Quebec's legislative debates on sovereignty in 1995, Blais compared Quebecers to the
Jewish people in their search for a homeland, saying "We lost
a war in 1760 and have been searching for a country since then." The sovereigntist side was narrowly defeated in the referendum, and Parizeau resigned as premier shortly thereafter. When
Lucien Bouchard succeeded Parizeau as premier in January 1996, one of his first decisions was to eliminate the "regional delegate" positions. He appointed Blais as
parliamentary assistant to the
minister responsible for regional development on January 29, 1996; Blais held this position for the remainder of his time as a legislator. ==Death==