Pauline Marois and the Parti Quebecois got greedy. And on Election Night, they paid the price.
After 18 months in power, the reigning party in Quebec wanted a majority government to push through a divisive Charter of Values and to call for a referendum on sovereignty "when Quebecers were ready."
Monday night, Quebecers were ready … for change.
"(Quebecers) have chosen unity and openness," said Philippe Couillard (above, with his wife), the new premier-elect of Quebec. "The division is over. Reconciliation has begun. We will now work together for Quebec."
The PQ fell from 54 seats to 30 seats (unofficial numbers) while the Liberals are now back in power with a majority government, going from 50 seats to 70 seats (unofficial numbers). 70 would be 4 more seats for the Liberals than the party had under Jean Charest in 2012.
If the PQ was going to lose seats, the thought was that voters might switch to the Coalition Avenir Québec. The CAQ went up from 19 to 22 seats (unofficial numbers), a very small increase. Quebec Solidaire goes from 2 to 3 seats in Quebec City.
Previous coverage:
Stephen Harper, Pauline Marois employ GOP tricks to reduce voting
2014 Quebec election preview; election set for April 7
Canada is losing female premiers: Politics or sexism?
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No, that wasn't a real picture of David Letterman asking Quebec voters not to vote PQ in the election.
This picture (left) has been floating around on Twitter and Facebook.
Letterman holds out cards that size as part of his "Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS all the time. So the Photoshop effort was pretty easy to pull off.
Letterman is seen as progressive and tolerant in his political views, so perhaps this move wouldn't be too much of a stretch.
C'est difficile to know how much exposure the Quebec race has had in the United States.
Those who are likely to watch Letterman are those who are likely to vote Liberal or at least not the Parti Quebecois.
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The PQ ran into a number of problems during the election cycle, but a lot of that buckshot was self-inflicted.
Pierre Karl Péladeau, the right-wing Quebecor media mogul, got into the race as a PQ candidate. His entry caused a liberal-conservative split in the PQ. Sovereignty had been more important than points in the usual political spectrum.
Péladeau's fist pump in favor of sovereignty backfired on the PQ during the campaign. He did end up winning a seat in the Saint-Jérôme riding.
While Péladeau's political career is just starting, he likely won't be considered for the new PQ party leader. But that won't prevent his name from being mentioned for the post.
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The Charter of Values, prohibiting religious clothing among public workers, was said to appeal to francophone areas in rural Quebec. And the unspoken strategy was that the legislation would help push the PQ to a majority government.
Yes, the election was a defeat for sovereignty, but this was a larger defeat for such legislation meant to divide rather than unite Quebecers.
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Kathleen Wynne (Ontario) and Christy Clark (British Columbia).
Canada now has 2 female premiers after the Quebec election results. Marois also lost her seat in Charlevoix-Côte-de-Beaupré. You might remember that Christy Clark lost her seat in 2013, but since her party retained control in B.C., Clark was able to win another seat.
As we discussed shortly after Alison Redford's resignation as Alberta's premier, the loss for Marois had nothing to do with gender or managerial style.
Still, Canada has lost 60% of its female premiers in about 12 weeks.
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The anti-Liberal protest in Montréal after the election results were announced showed that this race wasn't just about sovereignty. The student protests against the actions of the Liberal Party are still fresh in the minds of those in Montréal.
Marois didn't really fix the concerns of those students in Montréal, but she wasn't Jean Charest. Even in victory, Couillard should reach out to those students.
The economy, a crumbling infrastructure, and construction corruption will weigh heavily on a new government. Having a majority government will help Couillard and the Liberals, but the new government needs to get to work to solve these concerns for Quebecers of all languages and religions.
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On the Saturday night before the Quebec election, the Montréal Canadiens honored Olympic medal winners from the Sochi Winter Olympics. All the medal winners honored were from Quebec.
As you may recall, a number of the early medal winners were from Quebec, and there were a few stories about how well an independent Quebec would do in an Olympics.
In a few short minutes, the Bell Centre crowd went from honoring Quebec athletes to an acapella rendition of O Canada. Montréal in a nutshell.
In Montréal, they sing the first 2 stanzas in French and the last one in English. A few hundred kilometers away in Toronto, the Barenaked Ladies sang O Canada before the Maple Leafs game. They threw in some French at the beginning of the third stanza, where you don't normally hear French.
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photo credit: Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press // twitter @truthquestion99
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