A campaign of surprises and disappointments

That’s it! This is the home stretch of the election campaign. A majority of voters have made their choice, there are still a few undecided who will decide at the polling station. But roughly speaking, unless there is a major event, the game is almost done!

What promised to be a boring election campaign instead gave way to a series of surprises.

• Listen to the Yasmine Abdelfadel and Marc-André Leclerc meeting broadcast live every day at 6 a.m. via QUB-radio :

First, the campaign led by the Coalition Avenir Québec is disappointing. Not so much in terms of organization, which seems to work like clockwork, but rather in terms of communications. Clumsiness, dubious amalgams, poor performance in debates and general bad humor; the CAQ and its leader certainly did not lead the campaign we imagined, when they had succeeded in attracting many star candidates that we saw very little during the campaign.

The Parti Québécois obviously caused the surprise. Whether you are a PQ or not, sovereigntist or federalist, you have to admit that Paul St-Pierre Plamondon succeeded in imposing his campaign, his tone and his style. One speaks perhaps little of the proposals of the PQ (in addition to sovereignty), but it is rather the form which made it possible to surprise.

Little known before the election campaign, PSPP went from the position of PQ ball to that of locomotive of his party. Unfortunately for him, it is not enough to surprise the voters by the tone to ensure votes in the ballot box, he will certainly run out of time to transform sympathizers into votes.

The disaster is obviously liberal. The liberal electoral machine is no more. The organization is a complete failure: lack of candidates, volunteers, donors. The crushing failure of the PLQ in Marie-Victorin should have sounded the alarm of disorganization, but we have to believe that it did not. In terms of content, the error of 16 billion dollars in the financial framework is difficult to justify, especially when the campaign is chaired by the ex-minister of finance, led by the ex-minister of the economy and based on the assumption that the PLQ is still the party of the economy.

Dominique Anglade spared no effort, however, she criss-crossed Quebec, defended her positions, kept smiling and shook hands. She gave it her all. Unfortunately, and despite all its efforts, we have to admit that the magic simply does not work with Quebecers.

That being said, she could have – and certainly should have – put her point on the table in the early days of the election campaign, when the first symptoms of organizational deficiency were appearing. She is expected to question the dubious decisions of members of her organization and to decide. It obviously doesn’t seem to be the case; otherwise, why would they choose to send him to Kuujjuaq at the end of the campaign, when his own riding is in danger? Why not defend the counties of Verdun, those of Laval, La Pinière, Laporte and Hull, instead of leading an offensive in a battlefield lost in advance?

The post mortem of the Liberals is likely to be very tense and difficult. Or maybe not. It depends on the number of deputies who will remain there.