Souvy

Am I happy or am I happy?

Talk about mis-reading public opinion! She even lost her own seat.

Shirtback

Big smile here this morning too

SB

Novocastrian

Perhaps the new chap will fix up what passes for her brain?

Souvy

He is a neurosurgeon, not a proctologist.

Seriously good news, though, on a personal front and on a work front.

caretaker

It's only over until next time. The original BNA act as we were taught it in school giving Quebec perpetual right to language and religon has failed to satisfy everyone from the start, and there will always be some Quebecers who feel like second-class Canadians. I would of preferred to see Marois win, then screw up so bad that her party would be totally destroyed and the charter of racism and all subsequent attempts legislated against. Then let a sane political party take over. France having been defeated on the battlefield, Quebec and it's culture was allowed to exist by Britain's grace and Canada's treaties with First Nations within Quebec's boundaries must be guaranteed even if it means forbidding Quebec to become a nation.

JonboyE

Kudos to the Québécois.

Oakvillian

Indeed. Vive le Quebec canadien.

PKP seems to have been the architect of the downfall, with his fist-pumping declaration of his "valeurs les plus profondes et les plus intimes, c'est-à-dire faire du Québec un pays." The fact that he's now likely to run for leadership of the party he helped to cripple says a lot more for his egotism than it does for his political aspirations. Mind you, as somebody who presumably only came on board as a candidate because he smelled the opportunity of a cabinet post, he was never likely to be content to sit as an Opposition backbencher.

I think this result shows just how transparent was Marios' attempt to use the Charter of Quebec Values as a wedge issue to drive towards a referendum on separation. The fact that it has failed so spectacularly bodes well for the generational shift in Quebec politics. By the time Couillard needs to face the electorate again, the debate will hopefully have been consigned to the sidelines.

orly

Do the people of QC expect the Liberals to fix the economy?

Interesting...

Novocastrian

Point taken, but the economy never became an election issue.

Souvy

More an issue of not seriously screwing-up the economy.

A majority PQ government would have sent capital scurrying elsewhere.

orly

I'd say it's in pretty bad shape already.

Souvy

So why make it worse?

orly

Hence my original observation. Why elect the Liberals? Or will they only make it "less worse" than the PQ might?

Oakvillian

Economically the Libs are indeed probably the least-worst option. Marois' lot would have driven businesses as well as individuals away from the province and further depressed the economy. The Grits may turn out to be not be very good at running the economy (though Charest didn't exactly drive it headlong into the mire, despite the rather eyewatering debt load under his premiership), but they're probably not going to wreck it as much as a divisive, bigoted, rent-a-rant crowd would have done with Bernard Drainville and PK Peladeau in high office.

CAQ were only ever also-rans, although I think they outperformed even their own expectations in the election. They may have held the balance of power in a closer election, but they have no history of economic governance at all so would have been seen as a much bigger gamble economically.

However, I'm not sure I follow the premise of your original question. This election was, plainly, never about the economy. The liberals were not elected on the basis of their economic platform. They were elected largely as a rejection of everything about the opportunistic early election called by Marois because she thought she could win a majority on the back of a wedge issue. She miscalculated badly; good riddance, whoever the replacement is.

orly

True...where I'm from.

In Canada...and most places? It's only ever about the economy. It might be shrouded under other side chats and games but don't kid yourself. Same with the upcoming Scottish referendum. A lot of bluster about nationalism but it's really about pounds and pence (or new Scottish version of same)