Which would make the entire election well worth the 300 million….priceless really if she were to take Maude as well.

Exactly, well perhaps not meaningless but it certainly doesn’t have the meaning that most people ascribe to it.

OKOK. The abacus got stuck. You’re 41 sears short. I still win.

I spent the drive to work Friday counting the numbers, trying to determine if it was reasonable for the Tories to get 57 additional seats. It’s very hard. The math goes:

1.Gain two in Alberta, lose two in Saskatchewan.
2.Gain eight in Atl. Canada, gain six in Quebec, you’re still 39 seats short
3.Win sixty seats in Ontario (the blue belt from Ottawa to Essex County), watch the Dippers win the north and Grits keep Toronto. Result, 150 seats total.
4.BC: Win one, lose one. The Tories are already strong and I can’t see how they will win even one or two more (but I’m sure you can help Jay).

The result, 150 seats, almost completely unassailable. It means Harper can pretty much have his way on the majority of his platform, leaving the more controversial parts off the agenda if it would result in uniting the opposition. Just like Bill Davis in the late-70s. Of course, if the Grits collapse to Turner levels, well “Welcome Our Ant Overlords”. I await the queues at the airports as Judy Rebick and her crowd start filing refugee claims in Venezuela.

As for Quebec, I think you are wrong. The Tories are the party that can nail coffin shut on the Bloc, if they and the Liberals play it smart. But that’s one election away. The story in Quebec since 1980 has been about Quebecois rejecting the federal Liberals. Even JC at his Machiavellian best, polarizing the vote, could never achieved better than a draw. After establishing a beachhead in this election, the Tories can go loose in their regions of strength, that is, the regions beyond Montreal. Even if they can’t kill the Bloc, they can probably reduce it to Créditiste standards, say below 25 seats. That’s pretty much where it deserves to be as it pretty much represents the same constituency that Real Caouette did. It’s a two-stage process, three at the most.

As for the idea that Andre Boisclair is a danger to Canada. HAHAHAHA. A coke-snorting party boy leading a party that draws the bulk of its support from rural and small-town Quebec? I’m looking forward to watching Jean Charest and Super Mario eat his lunch in the next election. La pure laine may be very progressive, but even in the Saguenay they draw the line.

Cheers.

herringchoker, I dearly hope you are right. Leaving aside the party politics, it would be very good for the federation for there to be CPC caucus members from Quebec. However, two seats or even five would not negate the thrust of my argument that the vast majority of Tory votes in Quebec will be electorally inefficient.

If the Tories get over 25% in Quebec they will start getting seats, but probably no more than a half-dozen. They do have a concentrated vote. Its outside of Montreal, strongest in QC and the south shore. Just like in Diefenbaker’s day.