OTTAWA — Controversy over a planned re-enactment of France's historic defeat on the Plains of Abraham is prompting the federal government to consider scrapping the event.

Political commentators have called the plan an insult, sovereigntists are expressing outrage, and even federalist Premier Jean Charest criticized the event and promised to stay away.

Now the government says it might back down from the 250th anniversary re-enactment of the Quebec City battle that helped lead to British dominance in North America.

The head of the National Battlefields Commission said there will still be numerous events commemorating the anniversary - but the contentious battle re-enactment is under consideration.

Andre Juneau said Wednesday that changes to the schedule could be announced by next week.

"We've been listening to what people are saying," Juneau, chairman of the battlefields commission, said in an interview.

"We're looking at that (event). We'll be getting back to you shortly - next week at the latest."

With the political sensitivities running high, the Conservative government appeared to have washed its hands of the event.

Some Tories refused to speak about the re-enactment, express support for it, or say how much federal money might be spent on it.

The Prime Minister's Office declined to comment and Heritage Minister James Moore's office referred all queries to the departmental bureaucrats at the battlefields commission.

When asked whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper might attend the event, to be held almost six months from now, a spokesman replied: "We're focused on the economy."

Quebec sovereigntists have promised to protest outside the event, which they see as an insulting reminder of the defeat of their French ancestors in 1759.

While the federal minister overseeing the event refused to discuss it, the minister of national revenue was left defending it.

Revenue Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn blamed separatists for trying to stir up a scandal.

"It's the re-enactment of a historical event. It's not a party - nor should it be interpreted as a party," Blackburn said.

"There are people trying to turn this into a political event to help them work toward their ultimate goal of separating Quebec."

The minister cited his own family history as a sign of how people in Canada learned long ago how to live together.

He noted that his last name is descended from a family of soldiers that fought in British general James Wolfe's army - and not the side led by French general Louis Joseph de Montcalm.

Government officials note that the last re-enactment - which occurred a decade ago, when the sovereigntist PQ was governing in Quebec - drew nary a peep at the time.

Another federalist politician accused his sovereigntist colleagues of trying to fan the flames of indignation.

"What I find disgraceful is how the Bloc and their sovereigntist allies want to politicize this. It's cheap," said Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez.

"It's not a celebration. It's just a re-enactment. This kind of thing has happened often, all over the world.

"It's a historical event, it interests some people and others, no."

But the Bloc Quebecois continued demanding that the re-enactment be cancelled.

Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe said he was fine with other events related to the anniversary, which include architectural digs, guided cruises and art exhibits.

"If they want to do historical symposiums, I've got nothing against that," Duceppe said.

"But when they say it's not a festive event - and there's a masked ball - I don't know what they do during masked balls when they're not festive."

The masked ball in question is a re-enactment of a party held by residents of New France in an act of defiance against British troops as they prepared a blockade of Quebec City.

It is scheduled in June, one month before the battle re-enactment was slated to begin.

In Quebec's popular lore, the battle of the Plains is considered the end of francophone autonomy in North America.

However, some historians question the importance of that one specific battle and point out that the Seven Years' War raged on four more years, in both Europe and the New World colonies, until 1763.

Others point out that even if France had won that battle, Quebec might have been gobbled up by the United States 40 years later.

Napoleon sold over 2 million square kilometres to the U.S. in the Louisiana Purchase, as part of an anti-British military strategic alliance with then-president Thomas Jefferson.

The sprawling territory spanned from the Gulf of Mexico, all the way through the midwestern U.S., and up to the southern tips of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Unlike Quebec, those places have largely lost their francophone character.