On RDI, Simon Durivage is doing his daily interview with a Liberal, an Adéquiste, and a Péquiste. Apparently, Jean Charest is starting to talk about Pauline Marois and her sovereigntism. The poor Pierre Moreau (PLQ) had to put forward this message. Durivage asked quite simply “did we not know that Pauline Marois was a sovereigntist?” Moreau had trouble answering that coherently. And then this exchange happened (translated and paraphrased):

Moreau: Pauline Marois has shown that because she wants to separate Quebec and is beholden to the sovereigntists of her party, she can only be the Premier of sovereigntists, not all Quebecers.

Durivage: That doesn’t really make sense, because then Jean Charest can’t be the Premier of all Quebecers, just federalists.

Moreau: No, Jean Charest is the Premier of all Quebecers.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Cross-posted to Sovereignty en Anglais.

Mario Dumont of the Action démocratique du Québec has apologised for the unimpressive performance of the ADQ as the official opposition, saying he takes responsibility for it and admitting that he may have not been prepared to go from 5 to 41 MNAs.

Dumont made this apology as a campaign stop, not as some interview slip. It was calculated. It may or may not work. Quebecers tend to like their leaders flawed, and this sort of sincerity will at the very least stop the ADQ’s bleeding of support.

But it may not be enough to gain support to get back to, at least, 20%. On the one hand, it gives Dumont a sort of re-boot and a chance to start anew. On the other hand, he is admitting he wasn’t ready in 2007 and so one has to wonder whether he is ready now in 2008.

It will be easy for Jean Charest and Pauline Marois to attack Dumont now that he has admitted he wasn’t up to the task.

The next poll (which, at this rate, will come in two weeks!) will be very telling.

Cross-posted to Sovereignty en Anglais.

I was driving through part of Hull today, and you can hardly tell there is an election going on. There were very few electoral signs, and the only ones I did see were for the Liberals and Québec solidaire.

If our voting options are between Maryse Gaudreault and Bill Clennett, I worry.

Cross-posted to Sovereignty en Anglais.

Has anyone ever seen a more boring and uncovered election campaign? I love elections, and I can hardly muster a little enthusiasm here. There is no big issue (the economy? We all know the government can do little), there is no big personality (Dumont is no unknown anymore, and Marois is new and old at the same time), and not even some sort of scandal. Come on!

A few points of discussion, though. Charest wants to avoid the admittedly unfair debate setup that Harper underwent, but it also gives me the feeling that Charest is taking advantage of and is trying to further incite voter apathy. Dumont is colouring a little bit outside the lines with his speeches about the religion and ethics course and Hydro-Quebec. And Marois hasn’t made the news yet, really.

Here’s hoping the second week will be a bit more interesting.

Cross-posted to Sovereignty en Anglais.