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Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Quebec 2007: Revenge of the geeks
Ya, ya, I know why you surfed here.
First, isn't it great? As I wrote below, this election brought us the chance of beginning the first left vs right dynamic in Quebec in 40 years. Now we will have it, at least for a while, and provincial politics can revolve around something other than the national question.
What happened? It's called revenge of the geeks. It's Nixon in '68. It's Mike Harris in '95. It's we're not gonna take it anymore. It's flipping the bird to Montreal. It's what happened in Quebec City in the 2006 federal elections on a larger scale. It's a tidal wave. I mean, in the two ridings where the ADQ candidates had to withdraw in disgrace after making wingnutty remarks, the replacement candidates still won!
The two old parties are wildly out of touch with le Québec profond and the people are fed up.
No one saw this coming. No one. Pollsters, pundits, bloggers, even activists. (Although I'll take a tiny bit of credit for calling a Charest minority with an ADQ official opposition "a remote but not impossible outcome" below.) An ADQ youth organizer told me last night he expected a PQ minority, with the ADQ picking up maybe 25 seats. Now they are the official opposition and almost in government -- even the president of their youth wing has been elected! Congrats Simon Pierre.
The winners tonight? Three of them. Obviously, Mario Dumont. As I said below, my heart was with him, and I'm happy for him. The second is Stephen Harper. He would be well-advised to find a way to lose a confidence vote in the next couple of weeks, because conditions will never be better. And the third is national unity. Dumont is by no means Mr. Canada, but this is a giant rejection of the idea of having a third referendum. The sovereignist camp will now begin tearing its hair out, with the purs et durs clamouring for a harder line and the soft-liners pushing for a rethinking of the idea of a referendum. Boisclair will go, so will Duceppe jump in? Will Landry make a triumphant return?
Oh boy. Fun times ahead.
UPDATE (Tuesday, 11:30am): While surfing around the blogosphere I see a lot of unwarrented triumphalism along the lines of "it's the end of the PQ." Be careful. The PQ and the sovereignty movement are going nowhere for the time being. One bad election doesn't mean that much.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:37 PM
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