# Quebec Election: Federalist Liberals take lead in polls over separatist Parti Québécois **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 22, 2014, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273 "2014-03-22T10:45:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273/61 "2014-04-08T13:21:05Z")
There are some good interactive graphics and maps on La Presse: [Élections Québec 2014](http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/elections-quebec-2014/resultats-des-elections-quebec-2014/?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=cyberpresse_B17_resultats_2545370_article_POS1#qc) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273/62 "2014-04-08T13:28:19Z")
**Final Seat Count:** Liberals: 73 PQ: 30 Coalition: 22 Solidaire: 3 **Popular Vote:** Liberals: 42% PQ: 25% Coalition: 22% Solidaire: 8% Others: 2% **Voter Turnout:** 71.51% of registered voters ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273/63 "2014-04-08T13:31:53Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > That there was actually a significant amount of support for this is mind-boggling and I can only hope that with increasing urbanization, education and internet access this mindset will lose support in Quebec. I hope we never see the likes of her again. True; but it’s also reassuring that people like Bouchard, Duceppe, Parizeau and Dorion, hard-core sovereigntists, came out against the Charter of Values: [Prominent sovereigntist Jean Dorion won’t support Parti Québécois](http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-votes-2014/prominent-sovereigntist-jean-dorion-won-t-support-parti-qu%C3%A9b%C3%A9cois-1.2598469) ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273/64 "2014-04-08T13:43:23Z")
When Bouchard, Duceppe and Parizeau are against a major plank of the PQ, there’s been a shift. I remember the 2007 election where the PQ’s slogan was “Reconstruisons notre Québec” (Let’s reconstruct our Quebec") which is the kind of fluffy literary theory non-sense trend I’d associate with a certain kind of academic. It really didn’t work for them. It must be interesting being in the strategy meetings which come up with these things. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273/65 "2014-04-08T13:46:30Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > She sounded very bitter in her interview with CTV. Very; and she did it [**entirely** to herself](http://www.cjad.com/cjad-news/2014/04/08/listen-fatima-houdappin-goes-down-to-defeat-in-la-pinire) (check out Gaetan Barrette’s photo surrounded by religious minority supporters). ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273/66 "2014-04-08T13:50:17Z")
That’s a much more reassuring image of Quebec politics! ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273/67 "2014-04-08T16:41:57Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > I know that we’re all supposed to be gracious, and I’ve seen the various players thanking Marois for her service etc, but someone with her education who shows her level of support for bigotry, xenophobia and lack of worldliness, IMHO does not deserve grace. In some respects I think that she may be our version of Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin has a degree of self-marketing cunning, but she’s a stupid person who was catapulted eight levels above her level of competence by powers beyond her understanding. Pauline Marois has no excuse. She got to the Premier’s seat through a lifetime of work. She’s an educated woman with extensive experience, and so she\*\* chose\*\* to embrace racism, bigotry and small-mindedness. She could have chosen to embrace her fellow human beings and to celebrate inclusion, openness, and pluralism. She could have used her power and influence to help people. She could have invested the powers of her office in an effort to to change the balance between haves and have-nots, to increase the amount of fairness and justice in the world. Instead she used her office for exclusion, for hatred, for creating divisions and pushing people away and, most repulsively, for picking on the powerless. She’s a despicable, mendacious, repellent pile of shit, the worst politician in recent Canadian history, and that’s saying a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273/68 "2014-04-08T18:00:07Z")
If only she had used her hatred and bigotry for good! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273/69 "2014-04-08T18:20:53Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > I know that we’re all supposed to be gracious, and I’ve seen the various players thanking Marois for her service etc, but someone with her education who shows her level of support for bigotry, xenophobia and lack of worldliness, IMHO does not deserve grace. In some respects I think that she may be our version of Sarah Palin. :eek: _Nom du nom! Vraiment?!_ ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273/70 "2014-04-08T20:05:51Z")
RickJay, I completely agree with you. The frightening thing is that if she had won a majority she would have tightened up the language laws, with the intention of eventually driving out a large number of anglos, and she would have had bill 60 passed and, I’m sure, vigorously enforced. I’m sure she, as she alluded in the past few months, also vigorously pushed to have bill 60 informally enforced in the private sector and I have no problem believing that a lot of the pure laine would have enthusiastically gone along with it in the name of protecting their language and culture. It would have been absolutely sickening. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273/71 "2014-06-11T06:59:11Z")
Some interesting polls coming out, analyzing the standing of the PQ in the weeks since their electoral drubbing. And the news ain’t good for the PQ. They’ve slipped even further in public opinion, and most significantly, the party that was once the party of choice for young progressive voters is running very far behind with the young voters. [The Globe and Mail: The PQ meltdown is near-complete](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-pq-meltdown-is-near-complete/article18641824/) > [@](#): > > In 1986, Quebec’s most renowned political scientist, Vincent Lemieux, predicted that the Parti Québécois would be the party of a single generation, lasting no more than a few more decades. Although politics is an unpredictable game and the party may yet rise from the ashes, Mr. Lemieux’s prediction seems about to be realized. > > Things have been going from bad to worse for the PQ. The party just taken the worst electoral beating in its 45-year history, and it’s dropped even further in the polls since voting day. According to a recent Léger Marketing survey, it lost six points in the weeks following the April 7 election and younger voters are leaving it in droves. > … > In any case, according to the Léger survey, public support for the PQ is now wallowing at 19 per cent. Meanwhile, Coalition Avenir Québec, the third party that seemed to have no future at the outset of the election campaign just two months ago, is at 27 per cent, in second place behind the Liberals. “If the campaign had lasted one more week,” pollster Jean-Marc Léger told Le Devoir, “the CAQ would have passed the PQ” and become the official opposition. > > Even worse for the Péquistes, who used to see themselves as the voice of progress, their party is now the fourth choice of voters under 45. Its most faithful supporters are between 55 and 64. > > Predictably, support for sovereignty has reached an all-time low, with just 32 per cent of voters (and 35 per cent of francophones) in favour. Even if the PQ promised not to hold a referendum in its first mandate, 68 per cent of the electorate wouldn’t vote for the party. > > Analyst Bryan Breguet, at his widely read blog Too Close To Call, has raised the possibility that the PQ will soon be wiped out of Montreal. In 2007, it held eight ridings in the eastern part of the city, but now it clings to four – and with much thinner margins of victory, to boot. [Toronto Sun: Generation No](http://www.torontosun.com/2014/06/05/generation-no) > [@](#): > > Separatist leaders used to predict that it was just a matter of time before Québec would become a sovereign country. Their proof? The younger you were, the more supportive you were of the “Yes” vote and the Parti Québécois. It was simply the renewal of generations that would inevitably lead to a great victory. Demographics were on their side. > > Former PQ Premier Bernard Landry even used to joke about the fact that no matter how federalist a paper’s ownership and editorialists were, there would always be a bad page for them in every single paper, every single day: the obituary section. > > Well, times have completely changed. > > Last month, a poll showed that the PQ is fourth among voters under 45 years old. > > This week, a CROP poll published in La Presse reveals that both the separatist option and the PQ are at a historic low among Quebecers 18 to 24 years old. If there were a referendum today, less than a third (31%) would vote “Yes." The PQ is a distant fourth with a meagre 16% support and 65% of young Quebecers describe separation as outdated. Two-thirds of them say Canadian federalism has more advantages than inconveniences. Sixty-eight percent even answer that being Canadian is part of their identity > … > What should be of more concern to the péquistes is the fact that the youth don’t even define themselves on the constitutional question but prefer, when asked about political leanings, to be tagged as right wing or left wing. Ignorance or indifference is often worse than animosity or opposition in politics. [CTV: Young Quebecers reject PQ, sovereignty: poll](http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/young-quebecers-reject-pq-sovereignty-poll-1.1849832) > [@](#): > > The majority of young Quebecers are turning their backs on the PQ and sovereignty, according to a new CROP survey that polled Quebecers between the ages of 18 and 24. > > The 500-person survey found that just 16 per cent of people in that age group support the Parti Quebecois. The Liberals have more than double the number, with 34 per cent. > > The group also overwhelming majority reject the idea of an independent Quebec. The poll showed that 69 per cent of Quebecers between 18 and 24 years old would vote “no” in a referendum. > … > Political analyst Jean Lapierre said the PQ may indeed be the party of a single generation. The party has lost touch with youth and essentially, for the younger generation, the PQ and are sovereignty are passe. > > “A lot of us have said that that sovereignty was probably the agenda of the boomers and that study does seem to prove that,” he said. > > As many as 65 per cent of young Quebecers surveyed say sovereignty is just not realistic. The most interesting point for me is the comment that young voters now split more along traditional right-wing, left-wing positions than on the sovereignty issue. For forty years, the sovereignty issue has been the defining issue for political parties and voters in Quebec. It’s been the glue that held the PQ together. If that is no longer the defining axis of political opinions, it could mean a continuing spiral down for the PQ. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273/72 "2014-06-11T18:57:53Z")
Fascinating stuff - thanks. As an American, I’m happy to see the decline of any party calling for secession and disunion in our good friend and neighbor to the north. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-election-federalist-liberals-take-lead-in-polls-over-separatist-parti-quebecois/684273.md?page=3)