Liberals under gun in Quebec.

[Michael Bluth]

From Chantal Hebert's column in the Star. Link

Outside Montreal, the low Liberal numbers have even become a concern for the sovereignist Bloc Québécois, whose strategists worry about a pooling of federalist votes behind the Conservative contenders.

Those fears are not totally exaggerated. In Roberval-Lac-Saint-Jean, Liberal candidate Louise Boulanger spent last week scrambling to explain why she had become a paid-up member of the Conservative party on the occasion of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's visit to the riding in June.

So far, the battles for Roberval-Lac-Saint-Jean and Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot are strictly two-way races between the incumbent Bloc and the Conservatives.

Even more worrisome for Dion is the battle unfolding in Outremont, a rare riding with a strong francophone component that the Liberals managed to hang on to over the course of the sponsorship affair.

How interesting would one NDP, one Bloc and one Conseravative win be? I don't know if interesting is the word Dion will use? Maybe career-limiting.

[geoffrey]

I'm still really unconvinced about the NDP's appeal to Quebeckers. There is zero appeal to Francophones or soft-nationalists of any sort and the rest of Outremont is Jewish, again, the least likely ever to vote for the NDP. Their gains will be limited, the Liberals will take the riding.

[Michael Bluth]

I'm still really unconvinced about the NDP's appeal to Quebeckers. There is zero appeal to Francophones or soft-nationalists of any sort and the rest of Outremont is Jewish, again, the least likely ever to vote for the NDP. Their gains will be limited, the Liberals will take the riding.

Who knows.

If there is ever going to be a time for the NDP to break through somewhere like Outremont this is it.

It's a not very important by-election. Voters can tend to 'think out of the box' in by-elections where the isn't really much on the line.

Thomas Muclair might get a short-term reward for his principled stand against Charest.

[August1991]

From Chantal Hebert's column in the Star. Link

How interesting would one NDP, one Bloc and one Conseravative win be? I don't know if interesting is the word Dion will use? Maybe career-limiting.

Won't happen. The NDP won't win in Outremont and the BQ will keep the two other seats - with significantly reduced majorities.

Reports of the death (La fin des libéraux?) of the Liberals in Quebec are, as Mark Twain once said in a different context, exaggerated.

----

The more interesting byelection is the one in Charlevoix with Marois where Mario Dumont (but not Charest) has chosen to run an opponent. Marois will win but Dumont's audacity has attracted attention, as will the ADQ's popular vote total. (So too will the popular vote of the Conservative candidates in Roberval and St-Hyacinthe.)

Edited September 4, 2007 by August1991

[Michael Bluth]

Won't happen. The NDP won't win in Outremont and the BQ will keep the two other seats - with significantly reduced majorities.

Reports of the death (La fin des libéraux?) of the Liberals in Quebec are, as Mark Twain once said in a different context, exaggerated.

With the Liberals polling in the teens amongst Francophone Quebeckers both provincially and federally I would have to question why you would post that article?

Is there something you dispute in Pratte's analysis?

Dion better hope the NDP doesn't win in Outrement...

He could be the only Liberal leader not allowed to make it to an election.

[M.Dancer]

Dion better hope the NDP doesn't win in Outrement...

Pigs will sprout wings and fly before the NDP ever take a seat in Quebec.

You can put money on that.

[old_bold&cold]

I wonder at the type of people who support the NDP in any area let alone Quebec. I guess there has to be some appeal to them in numbers enough to even get a seat, but everytime I look at NDP and their platform, I just can not find even small things that are to my way of thinking. I do though think the Liberals should be shut out of any seats in Quebec, just on the sponsorship scandel alone, but I really am amazed at the those who support them no matter what misdeeds they do. It is almost like zombies or the like.

If things were to be equal in all the laws etc., the liberal in Quebec would mostly be serving time. But again there is that notion that these people are some how above all that, that just gets to me. I now look more to getting revenge on the whole party, and that feeling will not go away soon. Maybe the voters in Quebec can forgive and forget easily, but I for one can not do so.