Perhaps one can most usefully say that in 2011 and 2015, many people in Québec voted for the more left-wing federal government option, but that wasn't the case before 2011. Seems most reasonable interpretation.
Even that's problematic due to (a) the overall slipperiness of party-level political "identity" in Canada, and (b) that weak party foundation in such-and-such jurisdiction does not necessarily equal latently weak support. In that light, one might say that 2011's Orange Crush unlocked a trait that was always there, but hampered by the NDP's history of regional marginality. And given what's happened since 2015 re the NDP in Quebec, it might even be argued that 2015 was more a regional-leader-boosted "remnant" of 2011 than anything.
There's still a "Mulcair Liberal" base out there, IOW.
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