Ah.. Quebec

It's been interesting redaing Chantal Hébert's book French Kiss during this period in the election.

Although slightly dated (and you can tell when she talks about the NDP in Quebec), it's a fascinating read.

I find that the opening section, where she deals with more current events better than the 2nd half of the book,where she delves into more history. Although interesting, I don't find it as well written, or the insights as piercing.

What I found most interesting, was not that the Liberal party was in trouble because they had nowhere to grow. I've been thinking that for quite some time, but the fact that the Chrétien and Martin governments were so dominated by Ontario.

To me the way she is able to reveal the structural weakness of the Liberals behind the scenes, makes this book worth reading.

I think this election campaign we have seen Stephen Harper make his first mistake in relation to dealing with Quebec. It's the culture issue, and I don't think it's really about the substance of the issue. I really believe is is the way he handled it, and his comments about 'the rich gala', which he refused to say in French made it a bigger story than otherwise necessary. It didn't help that Minister Verneer was pretty incompetent and ridiculous in her defence of it.

The one thing that has to be said about Stephen Harper is that he seems to be willing to learn from his mistakes, so hopefully he won't repeat this one. It's given the Bloc a second wind in this campaign. He seems to take a longer view, and this mistake is relatively minor.