Bad Times for Harper at Quebec High

It didn’t go down too well with Quebeckers during the federal election when Harper put down arts and culture.

That’s because in Quebec, culture is more than turning on the TV or watching a good show; culture is an integral part of the Quebec identity. It’s how people see themselves. Any politician who attacks that identity, as did Harper, does so at his peril.

Harper paid the price. His seat total froze at 10. He never got his extra seats. As a result he lost the majority he expected, while we, poor fools, still had to pay an extra $380 million for his silliness.

Devastating. Imagine, Harper couldn’t make gains on Stéphane Dion, a guy at a lowly nine percent popularity in Quebec. (Seven is family, they say.)

For Harper, it should have been easier than shooting fish in a barrel. Maybe even like shooting a dead fish in a barrel. Yet Harper instead shot himself in his own foot.

Dion Liberals went up from 10 seats to 15 seats in Quebec. They were the winners. That’s how badly Harper did himself in.

Rather than learning a lesson, after the election Harper began dumping on Quebec “separatists,” lumping them all into the same bag as nationalistes, souverainistes, péquistes and bloquistes – exactly what we might expect from someone who doesn’t understand political nuances, in a province where nuances are everything.

It didn’t help either when Harper called the Bloc québecois “traitors” to the nation who had no “legitimate” right to sit in the Commons.

And this from a Stephen Harper who had done everything before the election to court the Quebec vote -- “Quebeckers are a nation!” and all that stuff. Hence the flip-flop.

Then two weeks before Christmas, having flopped, Harper flipped again. He appointed two known Quebec nationalistes as senators. Michel Rivard, a big-time Conservative organizer who used to be a Parti Québécois member of the National Assembly, and Suzanne Fortin Duplessis who used to be a nationaliste Mulroney MP in Ottawa.

So which is it? Does Harper hate the Quebec nationalistes or does he want them close to him in his caucus? Are Quebeckers still a nation?

During the last election, the Quebec Conservative campaign was run out of Harper’s office largely by a bunch of Anglo guys, many of them from Western Canada. We saw the results.

They weren’t bad guys. They just didn’t know Quebec. It would be the same as putting the Alberta campaign in the hands of a bunch of Franco Quebeckers.

At the Conservatives’ post-election convention in Winnipeg in mid-November the issue came up. Some delegates began complaining in hotel rooms about a bunch of western cowboys trying to run Quebec.

Two of Harper’s Quebec cabinet minister, Lawrence Cannon and Jean-Pierre Blackburn suggested it might be time for a separate Quebec wing of the party. Wisely, they put it diplomatically. Nor did they add that the Liberals have such a party structure. “There is a lot of merit in this idea,” murmured Cannon. “I think people are reflecting about this matter,” said Blackburn politely.

In the prime minister’s office they hit the roof. “Quebec wing? No way!”

And then this past week the Anglo boys lost their Quebec jobs. Harper, who was not about to set up any sort of Quebec “wing” (he loves power too much for that), chose instead to appoint half a dozen new staffers who know something about Quebec, nudging aside the old gang. It may be a start.

Times are bad for Harper. You want to hear bad?

The latest Nanos polling this week shows Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals twice as popular in Quebec as Harper’s Conservatives - 39 to 17 per cent. Only two months ago Harper’s Conservatives had a 13 point lead over Dion’s Liberals. Whatever happened to that?

In personal popularity, the new Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has eclipsed Harper in Quebec.

Last September it was Harper 25%, Dion 9%. Now it’s Ignatieff 30% and Harper 25%. In polling that’s huge. True, it’s one poll, not a trend. But that’s how trends start. Now all political parties will be polling like crazy for confirmation.

Those new Conservative organizers in Harper’s office will be busy trying to push back the red tide.

Now exactly what was that you were saying Mr. Harper about all those “traitors” filling Bloc Québécois seats in Ottawa?