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ADQ's Dumont clinging to job
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Candidate
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| Contributor | Monsieur |
| Last Edited | Monsieur Nov 05, 2008 07:08pm |
| Category | Election Guide |
| News Date | Nov 05, 2008 07:00pm |
| Description | MONTREAL — After charging in from the outer margins of Quebec politics last year to become Opposition leader in the legislature, Mario Dumont will be under the microscope as never before in the next five weeks.
The Action Démocratique du Québec leader led a stunning assault on the province in the 2007 election, winning 41 seats and handing Quebec its first minority government in more than a century.
Not only did the populist ADQ improve its election results 10-fold — it won four seats in the 2003 campaign — it fell short of Premier Jean Charest's Liberals by only seven seats. Mr. Dumont successfully positioned the ADQ as an alternative to the two-party tug-of-war between federalists and separatists that had raged in Quebec since the 1970s. He rode a conservative platform that earned support in rural regions, and he hailed the ADQ breakthrough as a victory for middle-class families and the elderly.
Now he's promising to give Quebecers a fresh start in the Dec. 8 election.
“We want to frame this election as cynicism versus hope,” he said Wednesday. “We're counting on Quebeckers rejecting cynicism.”
But come election night, Mr. Dumont might be left wondering where it all went wrong. Recent polls suggest that ADQ support has been slipping, while Mr. Charest has rediscovered his groove and watched his popularity reach new heights. |
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