Yesterday Was Election Day.
Quebec held its provincial elections yesterday. Parti Quebecois took a plurality of seats (54 out of 125), while the Liberals (aka conservatives) took 50, and the Coalition Avenir Québec 19. Two seats were won by Quebec Solidare, a more radical left wing party.
Threehundredeight.com projected 63,33,27,2, pretty significantly off the mark. The polls and 308's predictions showed a wider spread in the popular vote than occurred. PQ took 31.9% of vote while the Liberals took 31.2%, while the final 308 projection was 34% to 28%.
Charest, the Liberal party leader, was defeated in his own district. Oops. The premier-in-waiting, Marois, was sort-of almost assassinated while giving her acceptance speech. Not exactly a bring-the-province-together moment.
For reasons that I am not sure of, perhaps custom, perhaps law, there is no talk of the Liberals and CAQ forming a coalition majority government. Rather, PQ will form a minority government, having to find seven votes (assuming QS is with them) from the other two parties to pass any legislation. Popcorn may become very popular in Quebec soon.
Since the PQ does not have a majority, and neither other party wants a referendum on secession from Canada, that's not going to happen. Which is probably more than fine politically, if not philosophically, with Marois, since only 28% of Quebecois want to secede, according to recent polls.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled Democratic National Convention. Or I Love Lucy reruns. It's up to you.
Threehundredeight.com projected 63,33,27,2, pretty significantly off the mark. The polls and 308's predictions showed a wider spread in the popular vote than occurred. PQ took 31.9% of vote while the Liberals took 31.2%, while the final 308 projection was 34% to 28%.
Charest, the Liberal party leader, was defeated in his own district. Oops. The premier-in-waiting, Marois, was sort-of almost assassinated while giving her acceptance speech. Not exactly a bring-the-province-together moment.
For reasons that I am not sure of, perhaps custom, perhaps law, there is no talk of the Liberals and CAQ forming a coalition majority government. Rather, PQ will form a minority government, having to find seven votes (assuming QS is with them) from the other two parties to pass any legislation. Popcorn may become very popular in Quebec soon.
Since the PQ does not have a majority, and neither other party wants a referendum on secession from Canada, that's not going to happen. Which is probably more than fine politically, if not philosophically, with Marois, since only 28% of Quebecois want to secede, according to recent polls.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled Democratic National Convention. Or I Love Lucy reruns. It's up to you.