Quebec 1960

[RogueBeaver]

2 scenarios: either Duplessis or Sauve live to lead the Unionists into the election.

In a Duplessis-lives scenario, he probably does very limited campaigning for age and health reasons like St. Laurent in '57. Duplessis probably uses his trademarked kitchen-sink approach attacking Lesage as a federal carpetbagger, all style and no substance. Lesage runs on his RL themes.

Results: Something like 60-35, down from 72-20 in '56 (2 new seats were added), PV essentially unchanged. Pelquistes need at least a 5-point spread due to their wasted urban margins. They can't win because the government is too popular and Duplessis too wily. Like Levesque in '81, Duplessis will use his younger, more popular ministers as prominent surrogates. TV would be godawful for him.

Sauve lives: Seat losses might be kept to the single digits. He's probably fantastic for the infant TV medium and can definitely run on the policy offensive.

On a tangential note: how bilingual was Sauve? He was definitely bilingual, otherwise he wouldn't have risen to Major with the 22nd.