MONTREAL — From labelling Premier Jean Charest a “contented cuckold” to calling for police intervention to stop the trade in bootleg tobacco from the Kahnawake Mohawk, Mario Dumont showed last week he hadn't lost his touch for the snappy sound bite.
But the times have been grim for the leader of the Action Démocratique du Québec.
A year ago, the ADQ had redrawn Quebec's political map, ending decades of Liberal-Parti Québécois polarization and supplanting the PQ as the official opposition.
Now, on the eve of three provincial by-elections in Quebec, the ADQ's popularity has caved in and members admit privately that a second place in the three contested ridings would be cause for celebration.
ADQ Leader Mario Dumont
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Since Mr. Charest's Liberals didn't field a candidate in the by-election that brought PQ Leader Pauline Marois back into the legislature last fall, Monday's votes are the first major test for the opposition parties since the last province-wide election.
The three ridings that are up for grabs are strongholds for the traditional parties.
Bourget and Pointe-aux-Trembles on the east end of the island of Montreal usually elect PQ members with margins of several thousands of ballots.
The third riding, Hull, in the Outaouais region, has only been represented by the PQ once, when a separatist candidate won by two ballots in the landslide of 1976.
Nevertheless, the ADQ once could have hoped for a breakthrough. In the last election, the party came in second in the two Montreal ridings.
In Pointe-aux-Trembles, the riding left open by the resignation of former PQ leader André Boisclair, the ADQ is fielding a high-profile candidate, the economist Diane Bellemare, a senior adviser to Mr. Dumont.
“We have to deal with the current political mood,” Ms. Bellemare said in an interview Sunday, alluding to her party's recent troubles.
She said the media have unfairly focused on the ADQ's internal feuds, playing down the fact that that the neighbouring riding of Bourget became vacant because the incumbent PQ member, Diane Lemieux, left because of frictions with Ms. Marois.
Ms. Bellemare also found that the PQ retains a strong grip in the area.
“There's a portion of the population which has no critical sense. It's a religion. For some people, they've always voted PQ and it will remain that way.”
The PQ candidate in Bourget, Maka Kotto, was busy knocking on doors Sunday and telling supporters to make sure they cast their ballots Monday.
Bourget is the former riding of Camille Laurin, the father of Bill 101, and the PQ clinched it by nearly 6,000 in the last general election, despite slipping to historical lows in support elsewhere in Quebec.
The PQ will have to produce another strong showing, to demonstrate that it hasn't lost ground to other splinter separatist parties such as Québec solidaire or the new Parti indépendantiste, which is fielding candidates for the time.
