Mario DUMONT - DOA

From what I can tell on Radio-Canada, Mr. Jean CHAREST has won a stronger mandate in the Quebec Election. Liberal 66 seats +18; Parti Quebecois 51 seats +15; Action Democratic 7 seats -34 and Independents 2 seats +2. Mario DUMONT has resigned as leader of the ADQ after making abject apologies to voters for his inexperience during the last session and promised to do better after this election. Quebec voters were clearly unmoved. It was also a vindication for PQ leader Pauline MAROIS who fought hard to gain the leadership and has had trouble connecting with voters.

Not sure what this will mean for Public Policy except the narrow majority shall no longer mean accommodating the ADQ and make governing easier. Voter turnout at 57% was lower than in 2007 at 71%.

It was unfortunate that federal politics probably pushed the Parti Quebecois vote up in the last two weeks. The next election may be the the Federal one. A resurgence of the PQ may hinder the BQ presence in Ottawa as there is a line of thought that suggests voters like to have "dynamic tension" in the political balance between provincial and federal parties. This would be good for the federal Conservatives.

Quebec faces secular "crisis of values"

This article reminded me of another piece this week where the Catholic Bishop of Scranton PA warned the flock NOT to vote for any presidential Candidate who supported Abortion. In case it was not clear Barack OBAMA was identified as the candidate who would be denied the host (if he happened to be through Scranton!). That article highlighted the conundrum faced by Roman Catholics and shows the breakdown of traditional voting support for the Democrats.

Referring to Quebec Archbishop Cardinal Marc OUELLET the piece was timed - of course - to coincide with our Federal Election. In it Cardinal OUELLET warned that "the spiritual and cultural void is fueled by cliche-ridden, anti-catholic rhetoric that we often find in the media."

Strangely, a survey was released at about the same time, stating that "Quebecer's suffer greater levels of stress than other Canadians". (Is it possible that the two are related?)

Given that the BQ is a logical contradiction (they exist as a Federal political party to deny that Canada should exist) who's policies closely resemble the NDP (except in french) I found this of interest. The political history of Conservatism in Quebec has been closely aligned with the Catholic Church going back to the Dupleisse era. That Pierre TRUDEAU was one of the intoxicating ideologues who ushered in the "Quiet Revolution" is well remembered. (Now that his son - Justin TRUDEAU - is running in the Papineau riding of Montreal.)

Can these two strands of thought be woven together again?

[Addendum: Oct 16 National Post "Courting the religious right" by Fr. Ray de Souza discusses Senator OBAMA's courting of Catholic voters - traditionally Democrats. OBAMA is identified as the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever - even more so than Hillary CLINTON or Joe BIDEN. 1) He is in favour of partial-birth abortion, 2) He is against parental-notification for minors seeking abortions, 3) He is against "conscience-clauses" for doctors who refuse to do abortions, 4) He favours federal funding of abortions, 5) He has committed himself to sign into law the "Freedom of Choice Act" which would eliminate any abortion regulations devised in all 50 states, and 6) if consistent with his past legislative actions he could vote against the "Born- Alive" Act that mandates full legal protection of any child who survives a late-term abortion - as he did when he abstained when the vote passed in the Senate and as he voted in a near identical bill before the Illinois Senate in 2003. By adopting the most extreme pro-abortion position of any presidential candidate he may have created an unbridgeable gap with pro-life voters.]