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Lawrence Martin thinks former ADQ leader could claim a Red Chamber seatWith Stephen Harper set to fill 18 vacant Senate seats, a great deal of musing on who, exactly, Harper will appoint.In today's Globe and Mail, Lawrence Martin has made an interesting suggestion. Among other such conservative luminaries as Mike Harris and Kim Campbell, Harper may appoint the recently-resigned leader of the Action Democratique du Quebec, Mario Dumont:"The leader of Quebec's conservative party, the Action Démocratique du Québec, has just stepped down. Mr. Harper needs allies from Quebec, and Mr. Dumont knows the terrain. The PM might even elevate him to a cabinet perch."At face value, it seems like a worthwhile move.After Dumont's ascension to the role of Opposition Leader in Quebec's National Assembly,...

I'm pretty sure this isn't true ( Vincent is publicly supporting Michel kelly Gagnon to be head of the ADQ), but it is very interesting. Vincent would be a great Quebec ( or Canadian)leader. He actually believes in markets and freedom. He has written wonderful articles at the National Post and now is editor of Perspectives at the Fraser institute. I think he is still a bit too young for this kind of a job, but one day it would be amazing to say my friend, Premier Vincent Geloso....

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Premier Jean Charest has won a third term in today's provincial election in Québec. The big loser has been the Action démocratique du Québec under its leader Mario Dumont, who has already announced he'll step down as leader. The party has lost a minimum of 30 seats since the last election in 2007 and has even lost its official party status (as well as any funding that comes with such status). Big surprise: Québec Solidaire. This new, far-leftwing party has won its first seat in the National Assembly in the Montréal-area riding of Mercier, a district that's full of...

Charest gambles in Quebec election, and for what?When Jean Charest left the federal Progressive Conservative party in 1998, it was widely accepted that he was doing so in order to advance the cause of national unity.Public opinion polls of the time indicated that he was one of the few federalist Quebecers who could defeat then-Parti Quebecois Premier Lucien Bouchard in an election. Charest's change of venue from federal to provincial politics was not, it was assured, done to advance is own career.Ten years later, it's Charest himself who has cast doubt on that claim with his call of a December election.If current polls remain stable, this election should have two basic results:First off, it would return Charest back to power with another minority government. Secondly, it would elevate...

Hydro Quebec. I would call this a good beginning. Sell of the whole of Hydro Quebec! Is there hope for mario after all?On Thursday, Action Démocratique du Québec leader Mario Dumont said an ADQ government would partially privatize Hydro-Quebec, allowing Quebecers and Quebec-based companies to purchase 7.5% of the utility. Mr. Dumont said the sale would generate $10-billion that could be used to reduce the Quebec government's debt and reduce Quebec's debt servicing costs by $600-million a year....

Québec premier Jean Charest is fed up with heading up a minority government. He wants power, real power, and to get it, he must call an election, which he has done now. Whether they like it or not, Quebeckers will be called to the polls on December 8 – in the middle of an economic crisis and the Christmas season. "I am profoundly convinced that we need political stability in order to foster economic prosperity," [Charest] said. "That's the choice we have." He isn't wrong on that, but does he really have a guarantee of winning a majority? His...

Quebec Premier needs to consider perils of an electionThe most recent rumblings out of La Belle Province are that Premier Jean Charest is going to have the National Assembly dissolved in favour of an 8 December election."It was quite clear from statements made by the ADQ and Parti Quebecois that they're not in a mood to co-operate with the government," Charest recently announced.Of course, Charest insists that an election isn't necessarily his option of first choice."We think the only responsible thing for the this government -- and for this premier -- at this time is not to call an election, but to look for solutions to the crisis," he insisted.Quebeckers -- and Canadians at large -- may be forgiven if that sounds familiar. It sounds remarkably similar to Stephen Harper's comments prior...

Outsiders watching Canada must think that Canadians have more elections than holidays. With a federal election (the third in four years) just behind us, Québec premier Jean Charest is now dead set on calling a provincial election for December 8. The CBC's French-language television news service RDI is reporting several highly placed government sources have confirmed Quebec Premier Jean Charest will call a provincial election next week, once the U.S. election is over. Several sources told the network an election announcement will follow a cabinet meeting next week. It would likely mean a Dec. 8 election in Quebec, less...

Two ADQ MNAs have defected to the Liberals in a surprise move: Two Action Démocratique du Québec members of the provincial legislature crossed the floor to the Liberals on Thursday, saying they can no longer work with ADQ Leader Mario Dumont. André Riedl, who represents the riding of Iberville, and Champlain member Pierre-Michel Auger said they felt betrayed by Dumont and a party that had lost its way. Premier Jean Charest must be tickled pink. Three more such defections, and the ADQ will lose its Official Opposition status. Yet, this latest floor-crossing episode raises serious questions about the democratic...

Marois, Legault at odds over state of sovereigntist causeIn the year since the 2007 Quebec Provincial election, it has become increasingly evident that the Quebec sovereigntist movement is becoming increasingly splintered.In the 2007 election, the Parti Quebecois was oustered from the seat of Official Opposition, replaced by Mario Dumont and the Action Democratique du Quebec. In the same year, the PQ lost their previous stronghold in Saguenay to a Conservative candidate.Now, admidst piling electoral losses, the PQ are now facing dissention within their own ranks regarding the future of separatism.Veteran PQ MNA Francois Legault sewed some doubt about the prospects of a future referendum."You have to be realistic," Legault said, noting that Quebeckers are losing faith in politicians....

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I like this idea. Mario Dumont is proposing 4 year limits to welfare and cuts for the able bodied. Welfare has created an underclass of people that continue from generation to generation. It is time to break that cycle. Let's get people off welfare and ibto jobs. The unemployment rate is now at a 33 year low, let's get people working or studying! We don't have enough tradespeople, now is the time to get people trained. While we're at it cut corporate welfare as wellMario Dumont told the youth wing of the Action democratique du Quebec on Saturday an ADQ government would force social assistance recipients to go to school, or risk seeing their cheques slashed.He also says those on welfare for longer than four years would progressively lose their benefits.Dumont later told reporters that...

Quebecers could face a snap provincial election as early as next week, after both of the opposition parties in the National Assembly pledged to vote against the Liberals' new proposed budget. (CBC)This is exactly what liar Jean Charest deserves: a snap election that would see him defeated. You don't take money from the Canadian (i.e., Albertan) taxpayers under false pretenses and get away with it. Charest, it seems, has not come to terms yet with the fact that his is only a minority government, but that's alright because he won't be around for long anyway. Say hello to the next premier of Québec: Mario Dumont. Hey, that's what I predicted on the day of the last election: another election before the summer or, at any rate, before the end of the......

Both the ADQ and the PQ are saying they will vote against the Charest budget. It is a minority patliament, so Charest's liberals will fall. And either HM lieutenant Governor will call on the ADq to form a government or their will be new elections. The issue is of course the $1 billion in tax cuts. I want the tax cuts. Quebecers are the most taxed people in North America. if the government doesn't have the money. they can't waste it. I doubt that either the PQ or ADQ are ready for a new election, so I find it very unlikely that the government will fall. Further to that I doubt Mario is ready to govern and would prefer some time as opposition leader. I am sure some deal will be struck to avoid an election that very few Quebecers want. We just had an election 2 months ago. I think the...

I can think of few people who are more different than the separatist commentator and the press lord, yet their conclusions are not disimilar.This week, Konrad Yakabuski of the Globe and Mail compared Dumont's brand of nationalism to that of Maurice Duplessis. Nothing could be farther from reality.Dumont's "autonomism" of today is actually a toned-down version of the more radical Allaire report. In this, it is pure Bourassian doctrine. It has nothing to do with Duplessis who had concocted a mix of "survivalist" theory of French Quebec, complete control of the state and collaboration with the Catholic hierachy.Duplessis was a product of pre-Quiet Revolution Quebec. Dumont is not - he lives in the Quebec of 2007, not that of 1937.Listening to Dumont's speech on Monday night after he won 41...

With the RCMP disgorging scandals week after week, I argue in my commentary for the Maclean's 50 that the government's response, or lack thereof, is a cautionary tale for all of us involved in the political process: it is far too easy for those who sincerely wish to change politics to instead be changed by...

In the wake of the tectonic changes wrought by last night's election in Quebec, my commentary for the Maclean's 50 argues that the greatest rebuff to the separatists is not that the PQ was humbled, but that it was supplanted by the ADQ, whose position on sovereignty is at best opaque and at worst intentionally obfuscatory. Quebeckers did not simply reject the PQ's answer to the question of separatism; they rejected the question itself. Nevertheless, there is much in the rise of the ADQ that should disquiet us...

I voted for Mr Charest's party for a number of reasons. Mario's team seems non existant or foolish. Look at the latest fool:ADQ candidate apologizes for anti-Semitic remarksLast Updated: Thursday, March 22, 2007 | 8:02 PM ETCBC NewsAn ADQ candidate in Abitibi-East, Que., is trying to stamp out sparks that erupted after he posted online comments with anti-Semitic connotations.Gilles Gagnon finds himself backed into another corner for writing about American and European Jews on his business's website. The local ADQ candidate in my riding or his workers never contacted me nor did I get any campaign literature. The PLQ candidate Bachand sent me literature and his workers called twice. I still have lingering doubts about Mario's commitment to Canada. I was not happy with Mario's stunt during...

I said yesterday that I did not like Mario's little stunt with the document. The 3 leaders agreed to no propos. It also seem pretty opportunistic. Now mariuo is being pummeled for it, even by his own side:MONTREAL (CP) - The Quebec election campaign resumed with a bang Wednesday as Mario Dumont demanded the resignation of a key Liberal cabinet minister over a deadly overpass collapse last year.But the daring move by the leader of the Action democratique du Quebec threatened to whip back on him.One of Dumont's own ADQ candidates questioned his tactics and opponents accused him of using five deaths for political advantage in the three-way race to lead the province.Dumont pursued an attack he launched in a dramatic moment of Tuesday's leadership debate, suggesting Premier Jean Charest's...

Credit for ending fiscal imbalance won't be premier'sPublished: Friday, March 16, 2007Jean Charest shouldn't be the one to claim credit if Ottawa comes through with its anticipated billion-dollar windfall for Quebec in next week's federal budget, Action democratique du Quebec leader Mario Dumont said yesterday. This comment is interesting . Both Charest and Mario have complemented HM PM. The polls are looking like a Charest or even an ADQ minority government. So everyone will be watching Monday's budget.Leaders wait breathlessly for the word from Jim FlahertyFederal budget and fiscal imbalance will be main campaign story next weekL. IAN MACDONALD, The GazettePublished: Friday, March 16, 2007With the leaders' debate behind them, the three main parties in the Quebec election are waiting for...

Premier Charest has been a bit off the last few days.It's not even a hypothetical question in the sense that as long as Charest and the Liberals are in office, there's won't be a referendum in the first place. So the question is moot. And if the Parti Quebecois won the election and called a referendum, Charest would be gone and it would be up to his successor to lead the federalist forces.Charest's slip of the tongue was a rare unforced error. But in this campaign, he's been strangely off form. His sound bites haven't been crisp. His answers at news conferences have been oddly labourious. And his daily press conferences go on way too long - yesterday's ran for nearly an hour. Some reporters stayed at the microphone for three or four questions - which is a good way for them to hijack the...

ADQ fires anotherDumont sacks second candidate for comments on immigrantsFRANCOIS SHALOM; ELIZABETH THOMPSON of the Gazette, The GazettePublished: Sunday, March 11, 2007Incendiary comments from an ADQ candidate denigrating immigrants ruined what should have been a triumphant day for party leader Mario Dumont.Instead of basking in the stellar poll numbers published yesterday that put his Action democratique du Quebec seven points from the lead in the race for the March 26 election, Dumont found himself having to fire his second candidate of the campaign.He sacked Christian Raymond, whose explosive statements made to a local newspaper recall the polarizing Herouxville declaration on reasonable accommodation.Raymond, a St. Jerome businessman who won the ADQ nomination in the riding of...

Andre Boisclair seems increasingly desperate. He has now declared Mario Dumonta merchant of federalist dreams( I hope that is true!), Bosiclair is also reaching out to the union. He previously suggested previous PQ leaders were too close to the unions.Earlier on Sunday Mr. Boisclair accepted Sunday the endorsement of the province's largest trade union.The support given by Henri Massé, president of the 500,000-member Quebec Federation of Labour, was qualified, with the blunt-talking Mr. Massé making clear he didn't some parts of the PQ platform.He was lukewarm about by the pledge to hold “a popular consultation on sovereignty as soon as possible” in a PQ mandate.“Off the bat I would say that, at the QFL, we're not the biggest supporter of a referendum right after the electoral...

The PQ nightmare scenario would be my dream come true:...Again, if these numbers were to show up on election day, Dumont could actually finish second, from a few points behind the PQ, because of the more efficient distribution of his vote. Still not likely, but no longer impossible.This is not an outcome anyone foresaw even a month ago, when Dumont was growing into the high teens. But now that he's moved into the mid-20s, the possibility of the ADQ forming the official opposition cannot be ruled out.This would be nothing less than a realignment of Quebec politics, with the sovereignist party relegated to third place, and a blue-tinge soft nationalist party emerging as the alternative to the Liberals.And who would want to take over a third-place party? Certainly not Gilles Duceppe. Not...

Quebec is in full election mode. Premier Charest has promised to slowly increase tuition fees. He should double them!. THe low tuitions fees amount to subsidies for the wealthy to attend University. Students who get a degree also benefit financially, so it is unreasonable that they pay such a small percentage of their schooling. The socialist PQ is talking about abolishing tuition. Dumont and the ADQ have previously said they would increase tuition. The students are of course outraged over any increases in tuitionion,Charest,. Mr Dumonts big thing is $5200 for families with children. Both the other parties say this is too expensive. I think it is doable and would be more fair to Quebec's families. I am still undecide on who to vote for between the ADQ and Charest.'I can be better':...