Saturday, September 20, 2008

Day 14: Tories break out Quebec wilcard, and I, the smelling salts

Said exactly three weeks ago by some erudite, political wannabee in the comments section of Politics from a New Brunswick Perspective:
Plus, with the latter being said, he would be a huge wildcard in Quebec (as a francophone spokesperson and native son) for the conservatives. Something he proposed to do for Harper back in 2006 when he was premier.

To me, putting Lord in Quebec would be the TSN turning point for the Tories and their much sought out majority (it could even mean challenging a few traditional Liberal ridings on the island of Montreal because of Lord's backing of the statist bilingual policy). Something native Quebecers have always been suspicious of ever since the formation of the reform party (and the comments made in the 1997 election about La Belle province).
Today's headline/subheads [and quotes] in the Telegraph Journal:
"..., Bernard Lord is taking a grassroots approach to convince voters here and in Quebec that Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is the right man for these troubled economic times.

[...]

Over the coming three weeks Lord, the only francophone co-chair for the federal Conservative campaign, will use his seven years' experience as premier and his reputation as a moderate to help Stephen Harper win seats in Quebec and in Atlantic Canada."
Wow, some unfrozen Tory strategist deep underground in the Gloucester lair took the advice of this ol' hack: time to break out the homemade Sackville smelling salts!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

He "de-cored" New Brunswick, now they want him to "de-Bloc" Quebec. Good luck.

nbt said...

You can win the battle against the separatist, but not the war per se.

They will always be around as long as Quebec isn't a sovereign nation.

Anonymous said...

He'd better hurry up as it looks as if anger over Ritz comments has moved the numbers in key battleground ridings in Quebec and Ontario.

le politico said...

anger over Ritz comments has moved the numbers in key battleground ridings in Quebec and Ontario

It's moved the CPC numbers alright..moved them up!

http://www.ctv.ca/mini/election2008/polltracker.html

Anonymous said...

You guys seem to know little about the Quebec separatists.

For all practical purposes, they are a living corpse. The Parti Quebecois does not want another referendum to avoid a humiliation.

The same people are also disillusioned with the Bloc, for the same reasons. Finally, Quebecers hate Dion because of his arrogant posture. Everyone in Quebec repeats that he comes from Sillery, a suburb of Quebec City known for its snobs.

Bottom line, they'll vote for the least bad, Harper.

Anonymous said...

None of these gaffes by staffers are sticking to Harper. There not hurting him at all.

nbt said...

le politico: it's odd that, but it would seem to be the case. It'll be interesting to see if their ad (and Layton's visit to Alberta playing the Ritz card) had any effect on the numbers today and tomorrow?

Manny: with all due respect, you are speaking about the present. To know the separatist movement (you must know their pattern). And nothing in their history suggested to me that they will not be back in full force in a few years. The just need a constitutional crisis to energize their base and cause (which is floundering at the moment).

nbt said...

bill: seems to be the case as le politico pointed out.