Author: vanillaman

The Happy Wanderer: Quebec Solidaire And The PQ

Amir Khadir was the first Quebec Solidaire member of the national assembly, and now the Quebec Solidaire seems poised to try and gain another seat right next to Amir Khadir’s. In the riding of Gouin the Co-President of the Quebec Solidaire Francois David is campaigning to try and get her party a second seat in the National Assembly.

In the last election Francois David got 7987 votes while the PQ candidate Nicholas Girard (who is also running in 2012) got 10276 votes. In total that about 2,300 votes difference, which may be a lot for the Quebec Solidaire to get. Especially with the PQ riding higher in the polls then they did in 2008, but the Quebec Solidare seems to be doing a very local campaign. In which they will be concentrating a lot more of there time on Gouin and Mercier (Amir Khadir’s riding).

In 2008 Amir Khadir unseated a PQ MNA to get elected, if Francois David get’s elected September 4th she will also unseat a PQ member of national assembly. What does this mean to the PQ chances of forming government. In an election so close the Quebec Solidaires two seat could make it or break it for the PQ. Francois David had this to say:

 « Si à la fin de la campagne, il manque un seul comté pour que le PQ
forme un gouvernement majoritaire, et bien je suis ouverte à dialoguer
avec lui », a-t-elle lancé.

 Which in English means that she would be open to having dialogue with the PQ after the election if they are missing one MNA to form a Majority government. And one would believe it very likely that the Quebec Solidaire would support the PQ form a government.

So now one can safely assume when making riding projections that if their is a minority government one can safely assume that the QS will be supporting the PQ.

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The Happy Wanderer: Marois Startegy Clever, But Will It Work?

In an effort to try and win the election Marois asked student Protesters to hold a truce on strikes until the election is over. Future confrontations with Police Marois said would benefit Charest Law and Order agenda.

She is right if there are major confrontations with police that leads to mass social unrest Charest will be seen as the person who can fix it all, and Marois will look like she is siding with the protesters. Also mass riots will take the issue of corruption and even tuition hikes off the view of the public. Just like it did a few months ago, because the issue become not whether we should reduce tuition, but how do we stop this unrest? Right now the more militant student group called La CLASS is considering whether or not to listen to Marois  advice.

What Most probably will happen is that there will be some student protest, but there will be less. Whether the protest will be the main issue on voters mind has yet to be seen.It is clear more then ever that how to solve civil unrest will play a major factor in this election, but will it be the main theme of the election is yet to be seen.

“It would certainly be good to hold a truce,” Ms. Marois said on Thursday. “I invite students and those who marched in the streets to march towards their voting booths on election day and send a clear message to this government.”

 Ms. Marois made the plea as she unveiled plans to freeze tuition fees for 100 days if the PQ forms the next government, promising a public forum to examine university funding. She said a PQ government would index any potential tuition fee hikes to the cost of living.

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