The only thing we know for sure in last night's Quebec election is that the province is the latest to get its first female premier, Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois.
Female premiers now reign in Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Nunavut Territory, and now Quebec. Those premiers are the first females to hold those roles in their area, with the exception of British Columbia.
The PQ ended up with 54 seats, followed by 50 seats for the Liberals, and 19 seats for the Coalition Avenir Québec. The Liberals battled the CAQ after CAQ leader François Legault said during the campaign that he would not vote for secession from Canada.
Premier Jean Charest did not win his seat, so even if the PQ has trouble forming a government, Charest isn't going to take back control.
Of course, the real reason for covering this campaign is the impact of the Montréal student protesters on the provincial election. As much as the students would like to take full credit, Charest's troubles extended far beyond the student protesters. Corruption investigations and allegations. Exhaustion given how long Charest ran things in Quebec. In fact, the fears of protests during the election campaign fell far short of what was expected.
Still, the reaction to Bill 78 may have been Charest's Waterloo. Whatever sympathy he might have had in the student protests disappeared when the Quebec legislature passed the controversial anti-protest bill.
Marois has vowed to roll back the tuition hikes and to get rid of Bill 78. Then again, she doesn't have a majority so we'll have to see how much she can get done. Even if she is successful, Marois will still have to deal with provincial budget concerns.
The other major concern is what impact having the Parti Quebecois in charge has on the rest of the province. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, already not very popular in La Belle Province, will be on guard for moves from Marois to transfer more control to the province, knowing that any "no" from Harper will be seen as a reason to promote sovereignty.
Charest implied that the future Quebec Nordiques would be in trouble with a PQ win. As horrible a charge as that might be, the more sovereignist the PQ becomes, the more skittish Gary Bettman might get. Then again, Bettman isn't that excited about the NHL coming back to Quebec City even when Charest was in charge, and Bettman has his own issues with a potential lockout. As to a PQ impact, wait and see. But it shouldn't make a difference, short of a secession vote by the people.
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We didn't mean to bury the lede about the shooting at the Montréal theater where Marois was giving her victory speech.
One person died in the shooting with another being wounded. The suspect is in custody.
Published reports note that the suspect was seen yelling "the Anglos are waking up" in French with an English accent. Alternating between English and French, the suspect added: "There's going to be f----ing payback. It's enough. Wanna make trouble."
The stability that the province has seen under Charest is now gone. Voters had an option with the CAQ, but may not have trusted them enough. The fact that the Liberals and PQ split the vast majority of the vote in such a close margin (a difference of 0.7% of the vote) means some of that stability should stay around for awhile.
The new government. The shooting. The student tuition hikes. Bill 78. The student protesters. Quebec and the NHL. Quebec sovereignty. The answer to those and other questions? Wait and see.
One minor correction sir, you state it was a federal election, it was a provincial one. And yes.. things... rocky here now with last night events
Posted by: Mario | September 05, 2012 at 06:16 PM
D'oh. I mistyped that. Nice catch. Change has been made. What the short-term future holds for Quebec will definitely be worth noting.
Posted by: Chad | September 05, 2012 at 11:15 PM