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Après un automne plein de politique, j'ai eu ma claque. Ma propre campagne féderale (avec tout les déceptions et réusites), ensuite directeur de la campagne de Pierre Reid (grand victoire, 2e candidat du PLQ annoncé comme reélu), et finalement une "petite" mois de campagne pour Michael comme coordonateur dans les Cantons-de-l'Est, metonc que j'etais un peu brulé.

So I took the winter lightly. Got back into the swing of teaching, had to also get used to a new personal life, kids alpine ski racing, and so on. I took a break.

The PLC, during that time, and thanks to our new leader, changed enormously, especially here in Quebec. Nous sommes redevenu un option pour les québecois et québecoise. My last post pointed that out, and things have pretty much evolved as I expected. This is in part to Michael's openness and understanding of francophone Quebec, but also due to the negative politics and policies of Harper and co.

How things change in a few months. As I was finishing off my campaign last fall, watching the numbers coming in, it was not a great time to be a Liberal outside of QC. In Quebec, things were slightly different - we actually increased our vote, as Jean-Herman Guay has pointed out in Policy Options, by about 100,000 province-wide. In Compton-Stanstead, we were able to increase slightly the percentage from 2006, and increase significantly the francophone vote (as an aside, I lost quite a few English votes, especially to the NDP, in the last week of the campaign - me thinks English debate and CTV had quite a bit to do with that) From what I heard on the ground, this was due to several things - Stéphane's performance during the French debate; a realisation that sponsorship was finally dead; and reactions to Harper's cuts to culture.

Les québecois ont vu que le PLC a changé - pas assez pour voter en masse libéral, mais assez pour regarder qu'est qu'on a à offrir. Michael began, in December, with a relatively clean slate in Quebec, something that Stéphane did not. Don't get me wrong, Stéphane had many weaknesses, including his leadership style within Quebec, but he was not helped by the ongoing belief that the LPC was the party of scandal.

We have seen, since December, the results in the polls in QC. We went from 23.7% in October, to (looking at Nanos) 26 in December, 39 in January, 28 in February, 32 in March, to 36 in April.

Si on regarde CROP (le plus grand sondage fait uniquement au Québec avec 1000+ répondants), en janvier 31, 30 en février, en mars 30, et en avril, comme plusiers l'ont déja mentionné, le PLC a devancé le BQ 37-31, pour la 1er fois depuis 5 ans.

Now, why come back to blogging now? Because in their desperation, Harper and co. have launched their "attack ads." They are weak for the most part, but simply because they are there we have to prepare to answer them. Dion didn't, and it cost him dearly. Michael, I expect, will respond, and we have to fight to make sure that the reality of the situation remains what it is - Harper can't fight fair, is mismanaging the country, and has resorted to low politics to smear his opponent. So I say bring it on, Steve, and let the progressive blogosphere eat you up in the process.