Conservatives lead separatists: poll (indicates major CPC surge in Quebec!)

Reuters - Canada (for La Presse) ^ | Tue May 2, 2006 | Staff

[GMMAC]

Conservatives lead separatists: poll

Reuters - Canada
Tue May 2, 2006

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Conservatives are rapidly gaining support in Quebec and are now more popular than the province's separatist party, according to a new poll published on Tuesday.

The CROP poll for La Presse put the Conservatives at 34 percent in Quebec, up from the 25 percent the party won during the January 23 election. The separatist Bloc Quebecois, which a few months ago was flirting with 50 percent backing, dropped to 31 percent from 42 percent on January 23.

The Conservatives, led by Stephen Harper, unexpectedly took 10 of Quebec's 75 seats in the election, helping them win a fragile minority federal government and thereby ending 12 years of Liberal rule.

Harper -- who needs to pick up more seats in Quebec if he is to win a majority government in the next election -- has been assiduously courting the province for months.

"Thanks to his attitude, his gestures and his speeches, Mr Harper has clearly succeeded in getting closer to Quebec since the January 23 election," CROP's Claude Gauthier told La Presse.

The poll contained more bad news for the Liberals, who once dominated the province but were brought down last November by a corruption scandal which centered on Quebec. The party sank to 15 percent support from 20 percent on January 23.

CROP also found that 56 percent of Quebecers were satisfied with the federal government, an enormous jump from the 22 percent recorded in a CROP poll from January 11 to 16 this year.

The survey of 1,002 people was carried out between April 20 and 30 and is considered to be accurate to within 2.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

[GMMAC]

Translation:
If an election were held today, Canada's Harper Conservatives would likely receive at least half of the Parliamentary seats based in the province of Quebec enroute to a very strong majority government.
The openly corrupt, quasi-socialist & anti-American formerly governing Liberal Party would be literally crushed along with the separatist Bloc Quebecois.
Absolutely nothing but good news here !!!

[GMMAC]

PING!

[eureka!]

Hehehe ping. Times are a changin' up there...

[Canadian Outrage]

This must really chap the Liberals azzes!! hehehehehe!! Not to mention the BQ. hehehehehe!!

[headsonpikes]

Harper will have his majority in 2007.

In my best Monty Burns voice, "Excellent!"

[Sam Gamgee]

Wow, could Harper pull a Mulroney?

My observation of Quebec is that it is essentially a California type welfare state. On the provincial level, the spending is insane with so many at the public trough. I fear that any move on the part of the CPC to more conservative budgets could lose their support in PQ. I would like to see an end of the dairy protectionism, but that would likely kill their chances in PQ as well.

[Straight Vermonter]

All too often voters simply can't imagine voting for a certain party. Usually they have always thought of them as "evil" without actually considering that party's positions. This was certainly the case for Republicans in the south before Nixon.

It usually takes a triggering incident to break through this barrier, think Vietnam for Republicans in the south. Once that psychological barrier is broken gains can come very quickly.

What do you imagine may be responsible for this surge? I could see a turn against the Liberals because of the scandals but why a turn against the BQ as well?

[GMMAC]

"What do you imagine may be responsible for this surge? I could see a turn against the Liberals because of the scandals but why a turn against the BQ as well?"

Outsiders judge Quebec by Montreal:
Just as Ontarians are judged by Toronto & New Yorkers by NYC.
In all 3, once you get beyond the urban areas, there are lots & lots of "normal" folks.

Quebecers (other than the a$$holes in Montreal):
1. are fed up with & embarrassed by the Librano$ (largely Quebec-based) corruption.
2. fed up with both the Librano$ & the BQ practicing their selfish 'divide & conquer' games with Quebec & the rest of Canada & essentially belittling them in their role as one of the Nation's two principal founding Peoples.
3. fed up with numerous morally bankrupt Liberal social policies.
(remember we're talking about folks primarily out in the hinterland - many of whom more than lean towards small 'c" social conservativism - e.g. practicing Catholics).
4. like people all across the country, becoming more & more impressed with Stephen Harper & his government & glad (at long last !!!) to have a Prime Minister they can be proud of !

Note to any slimeball Liberals lurking re: #4
It isn't mandatory for great PM's to come from Quebec & more & more Quebecers apparently agree - LOL!

[AntiKev]

Check out the re-designed Government of Canada web site: The True North Strong and Free

[Fair Go]

The people of Canada have discovered that the election of a conservative government does not mean that the sky will fall in. It looks as if Harper could be in for an extended stay. This is not surprising. The only think I find surprising is that Canadians put up with the Liberals for so long.

[astoundedlib]

"All too often voters simply can't imagine voting for a certain party. Usually they have always thought of them as "evil" without actually considering that party's positions."

Good evening sir,
i am from Quebec actually, and what i can tell you is people got brainwashed by the "Partie du Québec" saying that "we are getting assimilated" and we're "paying more taxes than everybody else" bla bla bla...So people were voting for a party that would "defend" our rights as french people...Obviously as a child you eat that kind of stuff...

But i grew up and saw that in fact we're not getting intentionally assimilated : what do you want to do when you are surrounded by another language?It's normal to have a strong English culture inside the province...

I see more English people trying to learn french than the opposite (well less as time go by for the latter!) so i don't see where we have rights to defend ANYMORE.

As for taxes, i now live in Ontario for 8 months, and i don't see a big difference, plus everything is a bit more costy...

So that is why people were afraid to vote another party...They always got told our culture would fall down
if we didn't have enough representative...

Quebec history 101 =D

Best regards.

[astoundedlib]

"Outsiders judge Quebec by Montreal:
Just as Ontarians are judged by Toronto & New Yorkers by NYC.
In all 3, once you get beyond the urban areas, there are lots & lots of "normal" folks.

Quebecers (other than the a$$holes in Montreal):
1. are fed up with & embarrassed by the Librano$ (largely Quebec-based) corruption.
2. fed up with both the Librano$ & the BQ practicing their selfish 'divide & conquer' games with Quebec & the rest of Canada & essentially belittling them in their role as one of the Nation's two principal founding Peoples.
3. fed up with numerous morally bankrupt Liberal social policies.
(remember we're talking about folks primarily out in the hinterland - many of whom more than lean towards small 'c" social conservativism - e.g. practicing Catholics).
4. like people all across the country, becoming more & more impressed with Stephen Harper & his government & glad (at long last !!!) to have a Prime Minister they can be proud of !

Note to any slimeball Liberals lurking re: #4
It isn't mandatory for great PM's to come from Quebec & more & more Quebecers apparently agree - LOL!"


Good afternoon sir,
You nailed it buddy! See previous post!

Best regards.

[fanfan]

Thanks for the ping, eureka!

Gmmac and I share the Canada ping list, just so you know.

This is truly great news.

Stephen Harper has given the people of Quebec an option.
Gotta love him!

[fanfan]

4. like people all across the country, becoming more & more impressed with Stephen Harper & his government & glad (at long last !!!) to have a Prime Minister they can be proud of !

Bump to that good FRiend!

[fanfan]

I hadn't seen it.
I think it's great!!!

Thanks AntiKev.

[WOSG]

My how things change. It wasnt that long ago when the Tories were totally wiped out as a party in Canada and it looked like the right had no party to speak of.

Well done Stephen Harper.

[NZerFromHK]

The Quebecois people outside Montreal (and even many living inside) have a more friendly attitude towards Americans than urban Ontario and esp Toronto. My hypothesis is that they supported separatists because they hated the Liberals' leftism and their project of a leftist Canada but couldn't see how a Western Canada-based Conservative Party is like.

[GMMAC]

"You nailed it buddy!"

Thank you very much FRiend.
I've made it a real priority over the years to gain as full an understanding as possible of Quebec & the Quebecois.

BTW, I might well have added that, IMHO, the second cardinal error that English Canada makes - after wrongly assuming Montrealers to be representative of French Canada as a whole* - is failing to distinguish between French nationalists & sovereignists / outright separatists:

Given that we in English Canada have little or no respect for our own language, history & culture and do virtually nothing to defend any of them, it's hardly surprising that we have trouble comprehending those who do value theirs & are willing to stand up for them.

* to me, viewing residents of ultra-Liberal Toronto - "the mega-city of evil" - as typical of all English Canadians is akin to believing denizens of San Francisco or Boston to be representative of all Americans!

[mkjessup]

If anyone should be so inclined to send a note of congratulations and/or support to Prime Minister Stephen Harper,

pm@pm.gc.ca

I sent mine! :)

[Fair Go]

I'd like to see Canada with a democratically elected Senate with each province having equal representation. It would mean that voices outside Toronto and Ontario would have a chance to be heard.