It is important to listen when the Toronto Star’s Chantal Hébert discusses what is happening politically in Quebec. You sometimes get the impression that she is so caught up with the nuances of the Quebec angst that she fails to open her mind to possible results. Take the demise of the Bloc Québécois for example. The writer frets over who will inherit the votes if there is no acceptable separatist option available.
Has Ms. Hébert considered that the first option this small group of malcontents might contemplate is to vote for the Conservatives? They would achieve as much as voting for this heavy-handed new Bloc leader Mario Beaulieu while giving the one-finger Canadian salute to the rest of the country. There is no question but much of the rest of our country is getting fed up with Conservative ideology. It might be embarrassing if the Bloc voters accidently elected a Conservative but since they will not be part of the new government, little harm will be done.
The obvious option is to do more of the same as Bloc voters did in 2011. They could let the Jack Layton legacy live on. Mind you, the New Democrats do need to replace some of their accidental MPs with ones who at least know where the New Democrats stand—or at least supposed to stand when they are not simply trying to win election. Frankly, many Canadians would really like to know where the New Democrats are standing these days.
There is also the option of voting Liberal. Since many of the wandering voters captured by the New Democrats in 2011 were actually unhappy Liberals, this would be a natural. We already know that even Thomas Mulcair’s electoral district will be in jeopardy next year. There will be little of the Greater Montreal region that will not go rouge.
And before you scoff at the thought of Quebeckers flocking to vote for young Trudeau and his team, you should check around. You can start by ignoring the pollsters. People are lying to them in greater numbers all the time. The pollsters have absolutely no idea what is happening. What is really funny is that Justin Trudeau could himself be surprised at the vote in Quebec that is moving toward him.
Trudeau actually has a civil servant running his campaign in Quebec who contributes little in the way of understanding of the voters. The voters will, of course, decide. They just might not have very much choice.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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