In the bag

In Vancouver East Libby Davies is winning the sign wars for the Dippers. But then again, it is perhaps the safest NDP seat in the country and she’s incredibly well respected by pretty much everyone. Including those who disagree with her. Another romp methinks.

Not Sarah Palin’s Alaska

And while the “culture wars” issue doesn’t seem to have much traction here in BC, its impact on the campaign Québec certainly has. And it’s unfortunate that relatively few here have seen the brilliant anti-Tory ad running là-bas. It’s in French, but I found a version with subtitles:

[Can’t embed the video here, but you can find it here with English subtitles: here.

The premise is simple: a québécois musician (Michel Rivard, formerly of Beau Dommage a 70s folks-rock act) seeks funding from an all anglophone ostensibly Merkunized government panel. Take note of the photos in the background: Heritage Minister Josée Verner and Harper with an American flag behind him.

The panel hears a series of malapropisms in the canonical «La complainte du phoque en Alaska» : phoque (seal, as in the animal) for fuck; p’tit (petit, or small) for tits; à faire (to do) for (an extramarital) affair. Their outrage and umbrage lead to y a big read REJECT stamp on the funding application.

Whatever you think of Québec nationalism (Rivard is an old skool sovereigntist) or government funding for culture, this is an entertaining, clever and very effective ad. Shame we don’t get things of this calibre in TROC.

Majority report

The Tories seem to have stalled in Québec. With no scope to grow significantly in Atlantic Canada or the Prairies and only a little scope in BC, Harper needs a lot of pickups in Québec and/or Ontario. They would need a net gain of about 20 seats across the country. They won 11 in la belle province in 2006, but there doesn’t seem to be the scope to pick up more than a handful. In Ontario they’d need to pick some up in or around Toronto. Again a tough sell

If you look at the unimpressive profile of Dion, if Harper can’t get a majority now he never will. Nor the Tories until he’s gone.