When the Conservatives won 10 seats in Quebec in 2006, Chantal Hebert took a leave of absence from her job at the Toronto Star to write a book named "French Kiss: Stephen Harper's blind date with Quebec" (which ranks #3,658,410 on Amazon's best seller list, behind The Armageddon Factor which is at #2,181,787). So will Chantal take another leave to write a book about Quebec's latest love affair with Jack Layton? If she does, I have some ideas for book titles: One Night Stand, Knocked Up, The French Tickler, Booty Call, The Shocker, or maybe Friends With And Without Benefits.
When you look at the NDP's numbers in the province, the gains are remarkable to the point where they are likely unsustainable. In some ridings they jumped from 10% support in 2008 to over 50% support in 2011 in a province where populist political fads are easy come, easy go. Wooing French nationalists is far easier than maintaining their affection. That takes work, and if you don't deliver they move on to the next fad (which could be Trudeau-mania).
To make matters worse the NDP candidate recruiting and selection procedures were woefully negligent and inadequate. All you needed was to be friends with someone at a riding at office, and you could be nominated, selected, and elected without once setting foot in the area. Did they even go so far as to put an ad in the paper "Run for the NDP"? Maybe the Conservatives have had this wrong all along, trying to recruit top quality candidates and business leaders. Instead we should just try posting possible job openings in the Job Bank or Workopolis. No experience necessary (in fact no experience encouraged), you don't have to spend anything or do anything and you get $150K per year if you happen to win (whether you show up to work or not). I bet you'd get a lot of applications.
I'm from Vancouver so what do I know about far away Quebec? Nothing!
ReplyDeleteBut, perhaps Quebecors made a tactical move toward Jack thinking like I did that there would be another CPC minority which would have meant a Jack Coalition which would have to be more palatable to the rest of Canada then one with the previous Bloc . That carrot still stands for Quebecors because if PMSH mishandles this maj. Jack may yet get to be PM after these four years. But, you know like I do PMSH won't mishandle 'cause he is smart!