While south of the border, Mitt Romney has a long slippery slope to slide between now and November, we have more interesting election and by-elections here in Canada next week. We have a disaster forming in Quebec and that is because we have no clue as to who will win. We also have two by-elections in Ontario that are also a disaster no matter who wins. It makes for a nerve-wracking long Labour Day weekend.
First of all, we are cancelling all bets on the Quebec provincial election on Tuesday. Usually you can sense something in Quebec but all our favourite pundits have thrown up their hands in surrender. They all seem to agree that the incumbent Premier Jean Charest and his so-called Liberals are toast.
But much like the other so-called Liberals in Ontario, Jean Charest’s party has an opposition that is just about as ridiculous as Dalton McGuinty’s. Pauline Marois of the Parti Québécois seems to have all the personality of a Pit Bull bitch and François Legault of the new Coalition Avenir Québec will tell you whatever you want to hear.
Marois could be winning up to a third of the votes by promising to poke a sharp stick in the Cyclopic eye of Harper’s federal Conservatives and make impossible demands on behalf of Quebec xenophobes. Legault, on the other hand, makes no sense on anything and seems to be garnering a third of the possible votes. Charest also seems content to run on his record and keep almost a third of the committed votes. If all these votes were spread evenly across the province, the outcome would be predictable, but they are not.
The Racing Form’s morning line in the Province of Quebec seems to be a PQ minority government. Maybe.
Surprisingly there is almost that much clarity in Ontario. Dalton McGuinty is fighting with the doctors and the teachers in Ontario and that is supposed to win him the two by-elections in Concord and Kitchener-Waterloo and give him a majority government. It is not working that way. McGuinty has forgotten that all those doctors and teachers are also voters and they are really pissed and talk to lots of people every day. NDP leader Andrea Horwath is saying nothing and her candidates are doing well. (She should learn from that.) Conservative leader Timmy Hudak is taking part in things at Queen’s Park and smiling a lot. He is not doing as well as he expected.
The Racing Form’s morning line in Ontario next week is status quo in Ontario. McGuinty’s so-called Liberals stay in a minority. Maybe.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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