OPINION
Jean-Francois Lisée is often the smartest guy in the room but sometimes he is too clever by half.
Now Lisée donned his Sunday best and went a-courting.
The plan was to seduce Quebec Solidaire into agreeing to some electoral convergence.
Two separatist parties with strategic alliances in certain ridings could, the theory went, defeat the Liberals.
He even sent flowers with his decision to not run a Parti Quebecois candidate in Tuesday’s Gouin by-election.
But the Solidaires weren’t about to be swayed. No deal, no jumping into bed with the PQ, not even a little foreplay.
You have to give them credit for their principled stand to preserve their perceived purity.
The Parti Quebecois, sensing the land shifting beneath its feet, called an emergency caucus meeting this week to try to save the furniture.
It’s not only the failed Solidaire gambit that is hurting them.
The PQ is becoming less and less relevant to Quebec voters.
At least two recent polls have shown them running a distant third behind the Liberals and the CAQ.
The PQ is suffering wounds that are entirely self-inflicted.
Setting aside the promise of a referendum annoyed many in the party and sent them searching for other options, and many are wondering what, if anything, the party stands for.
Certainly the Charter of Values did not do the party any favours. Neither did the messy and disastrous leadership of PKP.
It is appearing that the PQ is the party of a single generation.
But all those erstwhile Pequistes succumbing to the charm of Gabriel Nadeau Dubois should take a look at what this party is all about.
The Solidaire program makes the PQ look somewhat reasonable.
To call its policies left-leaning is an understatement: Karl Marx would feel at home with this bunch (and so would Groucho).
You should look up their program.
I suspect they may pick up a few more seats or prevent the PQ from winning a few, but I am not sure the Solidaires will ever amount to much more than watchdogs, with barks worse than their bites.
All of this will set the stage for the next election in 18 months.
The Liberals need to keep their eye on the rearview mirror.
Francois Legault is leaving the PQ in his dust and seems to be closing in on the Liberals.
But a week is a long time in politics, particularly in Quebec.
If there is a big enough appetite for change everything is on the table.
Even the forever-taken-for-granted Anglo vote.
Hurray for PK!
It is so wonderful to see PK Subban reach the Stanley Cup finals.
So many of us had figured PK would be a Hab forever.
To this day, he says he was never told why Marc Bergevin wanted him gone.
No explanation to a player that captured our hearts, our imagination, and was generous to a fault.
PK was just too much for a staid, conservative organization which lives largely in the past.
When the Boston Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees they did not win a championship for 86 years: the curse of the Bambino.
I don’t believe in superstition but I do believe in PK.
Go Preds!
Montreal’s construction party
Finally, it’s amazing the stuff you find online.
This, perhaps more than anything, embodies how most of us feel about the 375th.
Happy Birthday Montreal.
Have some cake!
