Childcare is also a huge issue in Quebec. Personally I think Harper will blow his support in Quebec and it will return to the Bloc or Liberals or people may not even vote.Despite potential political troubles on the horizon in Quebec over Afghanistan and Kyoto, Conservative operative Philippe Gervais says Quebecers will agree with the Tories.
The Conservatives may have political problems in Quebec with their stands on Afghanistan and the Kyoto Protocol, but the party's deputy campaign manager in the last election says once the party rolls out its climate change plan in the fall and once Quebecers have a better understanding of why Canada should be in Afghanistan, more Quebec voters will agree with the Tories.
Philippe Gervais, deputy campaign manager for the Conservative Party in the last election, said prior to the next election, if his party is able to successfully explain their policies clearly on both of these two potential politically costly issues, Quebecers will change their minds about the federal Conservatives.
"People confuse Iraq and Afghanistan. When you tell them and it's clear to them that this isn't Iraq, it's Afghanistan and why we're there; we're there because a few years ago, there was the Taliban government, minority rights were taken away, women's rights were taken away, it was a dictatorship. When people understand that we're on a peace-keeping mission and sometimes maybe a little bit of a peace-making mission, people understand and they fall into line and they end up agreeing with us," he said.
"Kyoto is problematic, it's problematic in the sense that a lot of people don't know what Kyoto is about, people don't know what Kyoto actually is. They think it's going to clean the air and that's it," said Mr. Gervais. "Once the government comes out with a very clear plan on where it wants to go on the environment with concrete actions, that will change."
In preparation for the next election and the governing party's plans to boost its seats in Quebec, the Conservatives opened an office in Montreal on Metropolitan Boulevard which will likely be staffed by at least two full-time political organizers.
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