Quebec: April 7, 2014

[Citizen Hats]

On that note: ROC seems to forget that it was their beloved Charest who passed that niqab ban.

Beloved Charest?

though most of the country will root for the PLQ, they are continually disappointing

[Citizen Hats]

Re: Couillard running in Roberval: It gives the Liberals one extra seat they wouldn't have won normally, which could mean the difference between a majority or a minority.  Based on my math, and the recent Leger poll in the region, I think Couillard is ahead in his riding.

So it's like when John Turner ran in Vancouver Quadra, despite having previously only represented seats in Montreal and Ottawa. Notably, Quadra remains a Liberal stronghold to this day

[Citizen Hats]

The elderly and ailing NDP MP from Montreal Lise St. Denis soon switched to the Liberals since they were OK with her not doing any work - she has already announced that she will not run again in 2015.

The ailing NDP MP for St. Maurice-Champlain Lise St. Denis switched to the Liberals because of the sh**t she was getting from the OLO for hiring a few experienced old Chretien hands to run her riding office rather than NDP hacks

[Citizen Hats]

Well, once the NDP runs in the next election, there will be no point for the UCQ.

BTW, why isn't the NDP running at least a paper candidate? I know in some provinces for a party to remain registered they have to run at least one candidate. (Like in Saskatchewan, the Progressive Conservatives still run one or two paper candidates)

We had a pretty high limit (I think it was someone like 20 candidates to keep its registration), which was stuck down by courts, after a lawsuit from a small party.

It could be that they're allowed to skip an election.  In BC you have to run two candidates in two elections to maintain registration, which kept the ol' BC SoCreds barely alive until after the last spring election.  I was quite amused to come across some of their lawnsigns in Vancouver-Hastings while I was working for the BC Libs

[Citizen Hats]

I can't help but think these 'the PQ is eternally doomed' projections remind me of similar ones regarding the Republicans. While party politics in Canada has historically been more fluid than in the US, as long as a significant portion of the population of Quebec supports left-wing, sovereigntist politics there will be room for a party that supports those positions, either the PQ itself or (and I highly doubt this will come to pass) a broadly-similar successor party.

While I wouldn't write the PQ off, in Canada, major political parties do actually disappear from time to time