Québec Election: 7 Apr 14

[Jungle]

Marois now 427 behind, with only a few boxes left to count.

 

[Jungle]

Pauline Marois has now been defeated.

 

[Journeyman]

While it reinforces the message that her policies aren't where the populace are heading, it would he nice for her to keep her seat and have to deal with her party's defeat on a regular basis until the next election.  Otherwise, a win for her could still be interpreted (clutching at straws) as "I'm still right, but the voters simply didn't like the party's roster of candidates; separation and 'you shall/shall not wear...' is still on."


Edit: pedantic punctuation

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Pauline Marois has now been defeated.

Happy dance... rancing:

 

[Janie Therrien]

Today I'm proud of my fellow countrymen and women in Quebec for showing themselves to be true Canadians.  They said "non" to a party running on a bigoted platform that flew in the face of everything it means to be Canadian (that Charter policy belonged to South Africa of the 1950s and not Canada of the 2010s).  They said "non" to a party that only sought to cause discord and damage to the internal dialogue of our nation.  They said "oui" to moving on with things and taking Quebec into the 21st century with the rest of Canada. 

We grouse about democracy from time to time, but today was the perfect example of why it works.

Well said!!

 

[Remius]

She just resigned.

 

[PMedMoe]

She just resigned.

Sore loser....  :

 

[Jungle]

Today I'm proud of my fellow countrymen and women in Quebec for showing themselves to be true Canadians.  They said "non" to a party running on a bigoted platform that flew in the face of everything it means to be Canadian (that Charter policy belonged to South Africa of the 1950s and not Canada of the 2010s).  They said "non" to a party that only sought to cause discord and damage to the internal dialogue of our nation.  They said "oui" to moving on with things and taking Quebec into the 21st century with the rest of Canada. 

We grouse about democracy from time to time, but today was the perfect example of why it works.

Very well said... I am extremely happy with the results. The PQ is taking a serious beating, and the message is clear: the majority of Québécois want to remain in Canada, and they want to be inclusive while protecting their language and culture. The Liberals now have 4 years to advance their agenda, and I'm convinced the opposition will be breathing down their necks to keep them honest.

It's now time to move forward.

 

[vonGarvin]

We grouse about democracy from time to time, but today was the perfect example of why it works.

Disagree.  It was an example of a popularity contest picking the team that we wanted. Democracy in its current form is a shitty system.

Here is but one example of the popularity contest picking the team we don't want:

Hamas


Or, when they pick another side, we cry "foul" and "illegal":

Crimea


Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that the PQ didn't win (and I feel a massive case of Schadenfreude that Ms. Marois is currently unemployed), but what if they did?  Would it mean that democracy doesn't work?  Because people picked a different team?  I just don't have any faith in the current version of democracy that we have, where money talks and trumps all.

I only hope that Quebec got the provincial government that they need, not the one they deserve.  :-\

 

[wannabe SF member]

I only hope that Quebec got the provincial government that they need, not the one they deserve.  :-\

:goodpost:

On another note, I found the CAQ's performance quite interesting. When the ADQ became the official opposition, they were then swept off the field by a resurgent PQ and that was the death of the party and, witht his, the hope that a serious center right party was a viable option in Quebec. At the start of the campaign, many people likewise predicted the death of the CAQ. Legault's formation not only survived but added 4 seats.

This is good news for Quebec fiscal conservatives. Adding to the mix, the NDP plans on opening up shop in Quebec soon which could take a lot of the soft nationalist wind out of the PQ sails. With this in mind, the 2018 elections might represent a total paradigm shift in Quebec's political scene and one which, I hope, will exclude the separatist option for good.

BZ to Couillard, I'm not a liberal but I would have voted for a goat rather than see Marois come back to power.

 

[Remius]

The PQ is at a crossroads now.  Or will be in the next few months and needs to re-evaluate what it wants to be. 

The party has always been a marriage of convieniance between conservative and progressive democrats with the latter holding the most power within the ranks but both had the same goal. 

Now with the CAQ taking on more and more of that conservative side of the alliance, the PQ might actually begin to fracture.  If PKP stays on, Quebec Solidaire may see more support come their way from the left half of the PQ who will not stomach being under his leadership. 

Last night, Chantal Hébert said it perfectly.  Marois not only leaves the the party in shambles she has poured a pound of salt into as well. 

Expect a divisive leadership campaign and many people abandoning ship for better pastures.

This provincial election in particular will become a case study in many a poli sci course.

 

[devil39]

I guess the people who immediately jumped on the "OMG anic: They're separating! Fck those Quebec bastards!" bandwagon are feeling a little dumb now. 

I think that as long as a national balance is attempted to be attained/maintained by coercion or the threat of separation there will be an element of reaction with the same.  This is human nature, and not necessarily all bad either. 

Not everyone can "turn the other cheek" like Journeyman  >

 

[jollyjacktar]

I was pleased to wake up and read that she got bitch slapped, friggin hard, along with her party.  Good riddance to bad rubbish.  I hope that PKP will feel the burn too. 

Yes, I'll admit it, I was one of those who was worried those parasites would get their way.  I'm damned glad they did not.

 

[a_majoor]

The PQ is at a crossroads now.  Or will be in the next few months and needs to re-evaluate what it wants to be. 

The party has always been a marriage of convieniance between conservative and progressive democrats with the latter holding the most power within the ranks but both had the same goal. 

Being correctly political I would characterize the PQ as a National Socialist party; explicitly about using the power of the State to direct economic output and favours to a client base defined by ethnicity. (Social Democractic parties like the NDP have a similar philosophy but the recipients of State bounty is defined in that case by economic "class"). Good riddance to them.

And here is the Star on the election results:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/04/07/quebec_liberals_jump_to_early_lead_over_parti_qubcois.html

Quebec Liberals win majority over Parti Québécois as Marois steps down
Phillippe Couillard’s Quebec Liberals have won a stunning election upset, trouncing the Parti Québécois to win a majority government.

By:Allan WoodsQuebec Bureau, Published on Mon Apr 07 2014

SAINT-FÉLICIEN, QUE.— Philippe Couillard’s Quebec Liberal party sailed to an astonishing victory, winning a majority government in the provincial election that resulted in the defeat and resignation of Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois.

The Liberal leader’s accomplishment is a surprising achievement for the former Quebec health minister and neurosurgeon who just a few months ago was widely seen as an indecisive rookie leader.

But the 56-year-old Couillard benefitted from Marois’s many campaign missteps and a disastrous campaign in which voters appeared to get cold feet when Pierre Karl Péladeau entered the race and said he wanted to make Quebec a country.

“My dear friends, the division is over. The reconciliation has begun,” Couillard told cheering supporters Monday night. “We are all Quebecers. The pride in Quebec, of our identity, our language and our flag belongs to all Quebecers.”

The Liberals won 70 of the legislature's 125 seats, compared with 30 for the PQ. The Coalition Avenir Québec took 22 seats and Québec Solidaire finished with an additional seat for a total of three.

Quebec election results map, riding by riding
PQ could be party of a single generation: Hébert
Pierre Karl Peladeau eyed as possible PQ leader

Prime Minister Stephen Harper also weighed in on the results, congratulating Couilard and thanking Marois “for her public service.”

“The results clearly demonstrate that Quebecers have rejected the idea of a referendum and want a government that will be focused on the economy and job creation,” Harper said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the new government of Quebec on those priorities.”

Among the new Liberals elected were Couillard’s fiscal trio of Jacques Daoust, Martin Coiteux and Carlos Leitao, three nationally and internationally renowned economists who underscored the party message that this election was about who was best suited to turn around the province’s troubled economy.

The Liberals also won the riding of La Pinière, where the head of Quebec’s association of medical specialists and possible next health minister, Gaetan Barrette, was running against a longtime Liberal politician who split with Couillard’s party last fall and ran for re-election as an independent.

The party’s decisive win is all the more significant given that the Liberal were booted from power just 18 months ago after years of damaging revelations that it had orchestrated illegal political financing schemes. Those revelations are subject of an ongoing police investigation by Quebec’s anti-corruption police force, something that Couillard’s opponents raised repeatedly throughout the campaign to little avail.

Though Couillard, who was health minister from 2003 to 2008, is not linked to the alleged wrongdoing, he will nonetheless have to answer for the Liberals as more revelations emerge from a provincial corruption inquiry that will hear testimony in the coming weeks on the ties between construction firms bidding on government contracts and Quebec’s political parties.

Too soon to talk rising in the PQ ranks: Pierre Karl Peladeau

Liberal supporter Marina Lessard, who works at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, said Couillard was able to combat that difficult past with a respectful tone throughout the campaign.

“He was always respectful in his responses while the others were too critical,” she said. “We want to have the peace. We want to have a period of stability.”

She said that in the Lac-Saint-Jean region, normally an area of strong PQ support, the Liberal leader also benefited from the backing of students after Marois’ decision to increase tuition fees. She had campaigned in 2012 as a sympathizer and ally of the student movement following the Maple Spring strikes the forced universities and colleges to cut short a school semester.

“I was astonished at the (local junior college) when they told me that they weren’t saying it out loud but that they voted Liberal,” Lessard said.
 
The stunning defeat of the PQ brings to a close Marois’ political career, which began in 1978 when she started working as a press secretary for then-finance minister Jacques Parizeau, her former university professor before being elected in 1981 under René Lévesque.

When the campaign was launched on March 5, polls suggested the minority PQ government had enough support to win a four-year lock on power. The strong backing was likely due to PQ legislation to create a so-called values charter that would have enshrined state secularism by banning government employees from wearing religious symbols at work. Despite being legally dubious, it was a popular initiative among francophones that was seen as protecting Quebecois identity, though it wasn’t enough to inoculate the sovereigntists from other campaign stumbles.

Voters appeared to get cold feet after the introduction of the multimillionaire media baron Pierre Karl Péladeau as a star PQ candidate that was meant to bring a boost of credibility to the PQ’s economic platform. Péladeau’s now iconic declaration that he wanted “to make Quebec a country” along with an awkward pump of his fist in the air came at the end of a 10-minute speech on the need for better productivity, job creation and fiscal management, but marked the abrupt start of the PQ’s slide in the polls.

The former president of Quebecor, was not punished by voters in the riding of Saint-Jérôme, north of Montreal, winning the local contest handily.

A number of front-bench PQ ministers lost their seats Monday night, including immigration minister Diane DeCourcy, health minister Réjean Hebert and environment minister Yves-Francois Blanchet.

Also losing his seat was former student leader Leo Bureau-Blouin who became the youngest ever member of the Quebec legislature when he was elected in 2012.

“We are right to be disappointed, but we’ll never give up,” said former PQ democratic institutions minister Bernard Drainville. “We’ve overcome worse challenges than an election loss and we’ll get through this too.”

The late-campaign collapse of support for Marois’ party benefitted the third- and fourth-place parties in the Quebec legislature. It was anticipated that François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec would be wiped out when the election began, reduced from 18 seats to a rump, but looked but the party gained seats.

“We chose to tell the truth to Quebecers rather than to play the electoral card and I don’t regret it,” he said “It’s respectful and it bodes well for the future . . . We were able to make our voices and our ideas heard.”

Legault said he intends to remain in his post for the next four years, offering a “vigilant” opposition to Couillard’s Liberals.

“We weren’t always in agreement on our ideas and that remains true today,” he said.

Couillard has committed to reintroducing a PQ bill that would make Quebec the first jurisdiction in Canada to legalize euthanasia. The bill was in its final stages but could not be passed into law before the election was called. He also plans to put in place an ambitious infrastructure program designed to open up Quebec’s resource-rich north to mining and mineral exploration.

The outcome will be a relief in Ottawa, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives government, had reportedly been worrying about the prospect of a PQ-victory and the possibility Marois would begin a build up to a third referendum.

In Couillard, Harper will have a committed federalist ally and a shared obsession with the economy and job growth. The new Quebec premier also has a long relationship with federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair from their days serving in the Quebec cabinet where Mulcair was the provincial environment minister.

But that goodwill may be tested over such federal issues as the future of the embattled Senate. While the Conservatives want to bring in an elected, reformed Senate, the NDP favours the abolition of the upper chamber. If any of those proposals move ahead in the coming years, the Liberal leader has said that he will use any federal moves to change the Canadian Constitution to push for such things as Quebec’s recognition as a distinct society within Canada, more power over Supreme Court appointments, limits on federal spending powers and powers to veto constitutional changes.

When Couillard was selected as Liberal leader one year ago, he had pledged to put Quebec’s signature on the Constitution by 2017, the 150th anniversary of Canada’s founding. He abandoned that deadline during the election, saying that he would wait for a national issue like Senate reform or Canada’s relationship with the First Nations before presenting such a demand.

 

[Remius]

Being correctly political I would characterize the PQ as a National Socialist party; explicitly about using the power of the State to direct economic output and favours to a client base defined by ethnicity. (Social Democractic parties like the NDP have a similar philosophy but the recipients of State bounty is defined in that case by economic "class"). Good riddance to them.

And here is the Star on the election results:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/04/07/quebec_liberals_jump_to_early_lead_over_parti_qubcois.html

That can't be the definitive description however as it has always been a combination of competing values both right and left.  Bouchard, Landry and Boisclair were all right of center.  Heck Bouchard actually managed to balance the budget when he headed the party. 

Your national socialists are being driven to Quebec Solidaire, the fiscal conservatives being driven to the CAQ thus a party that is splintering now that their common cause is in hibernation or in a long term coma. 

 

[Journeyman]

Not everyone can "turn the other cheek" like Journeyman  >

True enough. 

To be fair, I can knuckle-drag with the best of the Cro-Magnons.....when necessary.  I was waiting for Quebec politics to justify it though; being a dickhead in response to election rhetoric doesn't help the situation.


I don't believe anglo politicians when they're campaign babbling either.

 

[upandatom]

The young voters have spoken,

very loud and clear.

 

[Remius]

The young voters have spoken,

very loud and clear.

I'm not so sure.  I'll be interested to see the demographics on this one.  With 71% voter turn out it is a decent but not awesome showing, I would like to see what the youth turnout was like.  Last time remember that there was that maple spring brouhaha that motivated students to come and vote. 

Definitly a newer generation of Quebecers have spoken.  One that is more in sync with Canada and the world than that babyboomer generation that grew up in an era of social(ist) revolution around the world and remember a time when French Quebecers were not the dominant force in Quebec.

 

[a_majoor]

That can't be the definitive description however as it has always been a combination of competing values both right and left.  Bouchard, Landry and Boisclair were all right of center.  Heck Bouchard actually managed to balance the budget when he headed the party. 

Your national socialists are being driven to Quebec Solidaire, the fiscal conservatives being driven to the CAQ thus a party that is splintering now that their common cause is in hibernation or in a long term coma.

True, like most associations there are competing sub groups and interests contained within, but the sum of the parts was indeed National Socialist in nature and effect. Splintering the various sub groups is a great end result for everyone, however, and the QS would be a fine home for the National Socialists.

I have to admit that suggesting Bouchard, Landry and Boisclair as beig "right of center" seems a bit weird, although I will say they were more centerist than many other leaders. And balancing the budget and the efficient management of resources should be the duty of any political leader, regardless of their ideology.

 

[Remius]

True, like most associations there are competing sub groups and interests contained within, but the sum of the parts was indeed National Socialist in nature and effect. Splintering the various sub groups is a great end result for everyone, however, and the QS would be a fine home for the National Socialists.

I have to admit that suggesting Bouchard, Landry and Boisclair as beig "right of center" seems a bit weird, although I will say they were more centerist than many other leaders. And balancing the budget and the efficient management of resources should be the duty of any political leader, regardless of their ideology.

It isn't all that weird really since they were all fiscal conservatives.  Bouchard being from Mulroney's cabinet and Landry carrying on Bouchard's ideology.  In fact both created tensions with their socialist old guard partners.  Bouchard wasn't keen on the left's anti semitism and made unpopular fiscal choices but it led to balanced books.

Bouchard in my book was the biggest threat to a unified Canada.  He was charismatic and knew what it took to get independance but PQ hardliners would have none of that. 

The PQ had and is going to have plenty of infighting between the left and the right.