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Are Tories saying adieu, Quebec?

With the Conservatives raging against Gilles Duceppe and his “veto power” over a possible coalition government, has Harper written off Quebec for good?

That’s the speculation of Noni Mausa at The Galloping Beaver, a Canadian politics blog:

No matter what else happens, I think the Conservatives can wave bye-bye to support in Quebec, as a result of their using the dangers! of them foreigners! having a Veto! in Parliament! being trumpeted from sea to sea, not just by loose cannon Con sympathizers but including their own talking points shipped out to the party faithful to burden radio talk shows for the next few days or weeks.

In more than one of these talking points (thanks Montreal Gazette!) I hear the echoes of the Swiftboating 2.0 attempted south of the border just weeks ago.

The themes included foreignness (mostly Quebecois variety), financial danger, power-hungriness, and strangely, religious badness, not usually a Canadian type of thing. I just heard MP Deepak Obhrai in a live tape loop on CPAC, wherein he said “unholy alliance” at least 15 times in 3 endless minutes.


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