You and Novo need to relax and get a grip on reality. Harper would prefer to stay in power forever, so that means by default he will need govern close to the center. If Harper turns into the big bad wolf with far right social policies then he will be gone in 4 years. Policies will be reversed, life goes on. However, screwing up the economy and picking fights with our employers would have a much greater and longer lasting effect on the country.

You have a right to your opinion I have a right to mine.

I have a good grip on reality and I don't need you telling me otherwise thank you very much.

If he did stuff like that then yes. But he won't; AC may mock, but I actually do think Harper is more authoritarian than libertarian and therefore won't want us ordinary people having access to cheap booze in case it corrupts us. Even though it's none of his business.

There are many ways to stay in power for a long time; moving to the centre is only one and the last one that would occur to Harper.

A lot of support for the NDP seems to have come from the young; what simpler than to incarcerate the lot of them for possession in his bright shiny new privately run gaols and thus shutting them up? So much for the local awakening.

I think the moral of the story is.....Canadians really don't like change. Creatures of habit and all that

I didn't vote. I think they're all pricks.

So what happened in Quebec that made so many turn away from the Bloc and towards the NDP in such a short period?

As far as I can tell, it was more what didn't happen in Quebec. The Quebecois have (almost) always been on the left in recent times but they no longer buy into separatism and no longer see the point of the Bloc.

Duceppe had nothing much to say except the same old, so the NDP caught the wave. And good for them.

I know, someone needs to tell Jack that.

I'd have expected that to be more of a gradual process though. 38-54 seats in previous elections (according to wiki) and 54,51 & 49 since 2004, which does look gradual but then the next vote is a slump to 4.

Perhaps that "naked in a whorehouse" report went down well there.

I'm quite sure that we can rely on Harper to do that.

I thought I'd followed quite closely, but when was Giles found naked in a whorehouse?

On the substantive part of your post, Quebec has a bit of history in wild swings between parties. One (not so) recent example is the rejection of the Mulroney PC hegemony which lead to the rise of the Bloc in the first place.

I think you're exactly right. This is what my stepson told me.

In many cases, people were not voting for inviduals but for the NDP, or rather against the others. How else would a 19-year old get elected with a large majority (Sherbrooke), or a unllingual anglophone win in an overwhelmingly franco riding?

Sort of how the majority of Calgarians appear to vote, how else do we explain the likes of Rob Anders?

Interesting times ahead in the House of Commons to be sure! It's a pretty drastic 'protest' vote...given that the Provence are lumbered with their NDP representatives for the next 4 years or so. I hope it works out.....a poor showing will play into the hands of the separatists I fear...in that Federalist representation did not reflect (or deliver) to the perceived needs of Quebec. In such a scenario, I doubt the Liberals would benefit either.

Oh well, time will tell.

Heaven knows!

I can understand why his constituents vote Conservative (OK, I can't, but I accept they do), what I can't understand is why his association keeps selecting him. Is it nepotism?