Apolitical Staples

I think Chantal is underestimating the role of “leadership” and putting too much weight on trivia that excites those that know nothing about Quebec, which is most of the ROC, which is why she has a following.

The fact is Boisclair is not a leader. Nor is Dion.

Charest is a bit iffy on the leadership front. He got off to a bad start because he had the radical idea of raising Quebec’s daily Child Care fee from $5 to $7 .. outrageous in the land of gimme gimme. But that’s behind him now and the fact is many Quebecers have read Bouchard’s apocalyptic Manifesto and while they are still in denial they know they can’t keep relying on Ontario and Alberta to prop up their excessive socialism forever.

Harper and Charest have one more chance to milk the cow for Quebec, then it’s on with de-centralization and the regional adolescents have to start growing up.

Also Mario Dumont has some leadership qualities and the ADQ is kindofa right wing party that dangles enough bait out to catch a few sovereigntists. That means that the Liberals and ADQ are well over 50% so this election should cripple the PQ.

With that, we’ll see the leadership of Charest (maybe a coalition with Dumont) and Harper that will give Ontario the comfort it needs to not vote Liberal and still feel the country isn’t going bust up. That’s strategic leadership at it’s best and Harper has a ton of it.

So did Hebert just say that the Liberals would work toward getting a PQ government elected in Quebec, because that would help Liberal chances in Ottawa? Do Liberal supporters here agree with her?

So did Hebert just say that the Liberals would work toward getting a PQ government elected in Quebec, because that would help Liberal chances in Ottawa? Do Liberal supporters here agree with her?

I’m not really a Liberal supporter, but, as one of my old profs would say, that’s a rather major unsubstantiated claim.

Another reason why conservatism cannot flourish until the Quebec question is sidelined. The Libs will continue using the separatist threat as a “reason” to vote for them — and English Canada falls for it.

I think Chantal is absolutely correct. The federal Liberals have only ONE agenda. Winning Power. They are not interested in Canada or the well-being of Canadians.

Therefore, a PQ win in Quebec would be of immense benefit to the Liberal Party. Immense benefit. They would use it to show that Harper’s leadership is rejected and that Only Dion can Save the Country. They’d tout Dion as the writer of the Clarity Act. A lie. It was Harper and Manning who said that such an act must be written. But - the Liberals would set up Dion as the Only Savior of the Country.

Dion is not a leader, as nomdenet points out; he’s a pompous, arrogant and ignorant office-worker. But, they chose him. He’s not marketable. So, the Liberals are moving into a campaign, not based on leadership, but on Threats and Bribes.

The Liberal strategies to win power are always and only emotional. They’ll either bribe you or threaten you. Those are the only two Liberal tactics.

Indeed, in my view, the Liberals are working very hard on the strategies of Winning.

These include: 1)THREAT: ensuring that the PQ win in Quebec. 2) THREAT: denigrating the results of Harper’s actions - eg, the Liberals yesterday announced Garth Turner’s cross to the Liberals (admittedly, who wants him, but)..AND a huge allegation of ‘abuse by Canadians against Afghan prisoners. So, this is to smear Harper’s promotion of Afghanistan.

There’ll be more of this type. But Chantal is right. The federal Liberals will work very hard for a PQ win.

Hardly unsubstantianted.

The biggest vote getter since 1993 has been to wrap yourself in the Canadian flag and yell at the separatists. When Charest did it in 1997 it saved the PC’s from total extinction. Chretien parlayed the “Canada is No. 1” to 3 straight majorities. Paul Martin even tried to do it during last year’s debate.

“Chrétien parlayed the “Canada is No. 1” to 3 straight majorities”

The implosion of the conservative movement starting with Kim Campbell (our Dion) is what parlayed the Liberals into victory by default. But from now on we’ll show up for the game so it will be a tad harder for Liberals than Chretien had it shooting at an empty net.