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rfmcdonaldI didn't post about the general election in Québec while the campaign was ongoing because I didn't think that there was much commentary I could add to an election campaign marked by the general disdain felt by the electorate for the political parties running. A federalist Liberal Party embattled by multiple corruption scandals, a Parti Québécois associated with a sovereignty project that only a small minority of the electorate seems interested in, a new centre-right autonomist Coalition Avenir Québec that's completely untried, a left-wing separatist Québec Solidaire that had only a single seat ... what was interesting about the campaign?
The Parti Québécois won the election, in that the Parti Québécois emerged with the largest number of seats--54 PQ seats, versus 50 Liberal, 19 CAQ, and 2 Québec Solidaire--but it won only three more seats than in 2008 and its share of the popular vote was down. The Parti Québécois minority government under Pauline Marois is widely seen as lacking the political capital necessary to indulge nationalist policies, notably a referendum and strengthened language laws. The Liberal Party did do much better than widely predicted, avoiding complete obliteration, but its leader and former Jean Charest lost his seat in southeastern Québec. The Coalition Avenir Québec did reasonably well vote-wise but didn't gain as many seats as expected. Québec Solidaire, meanwhile, survived and got another seat.
The map of the results does show interesting patterns: the predominance of the battered but still second-place Liberal Party of Québec on the island of Montréal with its large Anglophone population; the strength of Coalition Avenir Québec in Québec City and central Québec; the two seats won by left-wing pro-sovereignty challenger Québec Solidaire in two adjacent ridings in central Montréal; the strength of the Parti Québécois on the peripheries of the province (the north, east, and west of the province).
The Parti Québécois won the election, in that the Parti Québécois emerged with the largest number of seats--54 PQ seats, versus 50 Liberal, 19 CAQ, and 2 Québec Solidaire--but it won only three more seats than in 2008 and its share of the popular vote was down. The Parti Québécois minority government under Pauline Marois is widely seen as lacking the political capital necessary to indulge nationalist policies, notably a referendum and strengthened language laws. The Liberal Party did do much better than widely predicted, avoiding complete obliteration, but its leader and former Jean Charest lost his seat in southeastern Québec. The Coalition Avenir Québec did reasonably well vote-wise but didn't gain as many seats as expected. Québec Solidaire, meanwhile, survived and got another seat.
The map of the results does show interesting patterns: the predominance of the battered but still second-place Liberal Party of Québec on the island of Montréal with its large Anglophone population; the strength of Coalition Avenir Québec in Québec City and central Québec; the two seats won by left-wing pro-sovereignty challenger Québec Solidaire in two adjacent ridings in central Montréal; the strength of the Parti Québécois on the peripheries of the province (the north, east, and west of the province).
