That explains the Harpocrites gravy training their way through Quebec last week handing out money like it was candy...
You know.. in the exact same way that they used to cry bloody murder about when Liberals did it...
The latest SES Research public opinion poll showing support for Stephen Harper's government has all but evaporated in vote-rich Quebec helps to explain the Conservative gravy train suddenly thundering through la belle province this week.
With parliament in recess and the Conservatives in evident panic mode, Harper's ministers have been fanning out across Quebec, heaving bags of public cash at every passing cause, trying to buy back voters with their own money (and plenty more from the rest of the country).
Golly, it's just like the good ol' days of the sleazy Liberals buying Quebec, one paving job at a time, behaviour that used to bring howls of outrage from Harper and his Conservatives.
All week, Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon has been a busy boy -- one day he's in Montreal announcing $37 million for public transit anti-terrorism programs; the next, it's a new $32-million highway extension in Gatineau.
Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Conservative minister responsible for corporate welfare in Quebec, breezed into Riviere-du-Loup with a federal cheque for $29 million, all for one company specializing in "peat-moss technology."
Down the way in the Beauce region, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier doled out a government grant of $23,820 "to promote female entrepreneurship" (think about that one), and then popped into Montreal to announce new anti-pollution standards for motorcycles. (Who says the Conservatives don't have a clean-air plan?)
The explanation is evident in the SES Research polls reported in the Sun today. While the survey shows the Conservatives nationally in a virtual dead heat with the leaderless Liberals, support for Harper's gang in Quebec has plunged to just 12% from 26% two months ago and a post-election high of 35% in May.
At that level of support, Quebec is on the verge of returning to a Conservative wasteland where Harper would be lucky to win even a couple of the province's 75 seats.
SES pollster Nik Nanos puts the Conservatives' predicament in clear perspective: "The honeymoon is over."
Nanos points out that while the Conservatives are holding their own in Ontario and Atlantic Canada, and even gaining support in the West, the chances of Harper's winning another minority in the 308-seat Commons without Quebec are greatly diminished, and the odds of forming a majority next to nil.
Notably, most of the slide in Conservative support in Quebec has gone to the Bloc Quebecois, not to the Liberals. "It means Harper was able to appeal to the soft nationalist vote," Nanos says, "and when he was talking about ethics and cleaning up corruption, shaking up the federal government, that actually resonated with soft nationalists in Quebec.
"Now they're talking about the war in Afghanistan, pulling out of Kyoto, Canada-U.S. relations -- all those hot-button issues that do not resonate with nationalists in Quebec."
With Quebec voters in an apparent state of flux, the stakes are now particularly high for the Liberals as they head into their leadership convention in Montreal at the end of this month.
As Nanos says, hard times for the Conservatives in Quebec are an opportunity for the Liberals to reconnect with voters in that province.
On the other hand, if the Liberals manage to screw up their day in the sun -- the issue of declaring Quebec a nation could do the trick -- the Conservatives may yet be able to regroup in time for the next election.
In the meantime, Quebec under the Harper government is right back where the Liberals left it -- smack on the mainline of the great Canadian gravy train from our pockets to voters' hearts.
Source
How badly do you have to suck as being a political party if you can't even lead a leaderless party in the polls...
Go on Steve, keep running Porna Ambrose in front of the cameras and microphones to tell people about your environmental plan...
And the world will keep laughing at your pathetic asses...
:lol:
