Quebec Betrayed by Two Selfish Politicians

Looking at the final numbers it's plain to see that the Liberal's had a lot more strength than any of the pollsters gave them credit for, but that's generally always the case here in Quebec as the undecided usually vote massively Liberal come election day.
One pollster had the Liberals at just 25% support just three days before the election.

I daresay that with a sock puppet as leader of the party we'd be looking at a Liberal minority or majority.

There's no doubt that Jean Charest gambled with the future of this province by foolishly believing that he could pull another rabbit out of his hat.

What on Earth was he thinking?

Many blog pieces ago, I told you that Charest could not hold his riding, after all, he barely squeaked through the last two elections.

Yesterday's results showed Charest didn't lose by a little, it was over 3,000 votes, a sizable number.

Somewhere in his entourage somebody needed to deliver the bad news to the leader months ago, that as long as he stayed on, the party was doomed.

Instead of doing the honourable thing, resigning with dignity and turning the party over to somebody untainted by scandal, the Premier bet the house and farm and went 'all in' with a losing hand.

There would have remained over a year on the old mandate and a new leader as is always the case, would be met with enthusiasm by the public.

The ideal situation would have been for Charest to resign after Christmas and after a leadership convention which would have taken us into Spring, when the new Premier, fresh as a rose, could call an election that we now know would be eminently winnable.

Mr. Charest's decision was based on selfishness, I must sadly conclude.

Even those of us who voted Liberal had misgivings about Charest, there was just too much dirt and too much had stuck.

For me, the real undoing of the Liberal party was Tony Tomassi, forced to resign after being accused of handing off valuable daycare licenses to friends.
Up until then everything was containable.

But petty graft is something easy for the public to understand, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
If the Liberals could stoop so low, there had to be graft higher above, or so the rationale.

By the way, word around the Charest entourage is that he will be leaving the political scene, sadly with his tail between his legs.
Don't feel too bad for him, he'll be collecting about a year's salary as an exit bonus and his100k plus federal pension kicks in starting June. Unfortunately, he'll have to wait until he turns sixty to collect another 100k plus pension from the Quebec government.

If there is another politician that deserves credit for the PQ victory, it is Prime Minister Harper who somehow forgot that he is Prime Minister of the whole country.
Sometimes he seemed to go out of his way to bait Quebecers with idiotic and divisive moves like adding the Queen back into the Canadian brand.
There was no call for the re-branding of the armed forces with the 'Royal' appellation and it was political suicide in Quebec.
Before all you Harperites say that the PM is just giving Quebec what it deserves, that's not what a Prime Minister is supposed to do, that is, punish those who didn't vote for him or his party.

I can say that for the first time in my life, has a Prime Minister acted in such a partisan and shameful manner, he seems to revel in his Quebec-bashing.

And yes, those who aspire to the top civil service jobs do need to speak French, just like you need an accounting or law degree in order to join the profession.
The naming of a unilingual anglophone to the post of the Auditor General was unpardonable, I don't care how many of you see it differently. (The Supreme Court is another matter)

Mr. Harper, Mr. Charest, from all Quebec federalists, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the betrayal.

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