Je ne me souviens rien

Previously on ursa minor: bear604:

"...just like the Constitution, another item the Tories thought they could screw with behind closed doors. How did that work out?"

It appears that, given their plan to sucker Quebec voters by re-opening the Constitution, the Conservatives don't remember how that worked out. Obviously, Stephen Harper's declaration of Quebec as a 'Nation' didn't give the Conservatives the electoral traction they were looking for as most decided voters are still siding with the Bloc Quebecois, and the Holy Grail of a Tory majority remains denied. Harper remains convinced that Quebec holds the keys to the kingdom, even if that means still alienated westerners foregoing the polls and marginal Tory seats in BC and Saskatchewan slip into the hands of the NDP.

As I reside on the other side of the country, my knowledge of Quebec politics is admittedly sketchy. However, I think that the Tories, in courting the federalist vote in Quebec, don't really understand what the federalist vote is: One person's Asymmetrical Federalist is another person's Soft Nationalist. Wouldn't the real Quebec Federalists be the ones who are happy with the way things are? Given the choice, are those people going to consciously vote to relive the anxious, unstable, flag burning days of the early 1990s? Wouldn't they be more inclined to run for cover to the Liberals, led by the author of the Clarity Act, Stephane Dion?

This page says to the Conservative Party of Canada: hey, it's your funeral. Didn't Lucien Bouchard sire the Bloc Quebecois after the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord? Isn't your base made up of former Reform Party/Canadian Alliance types who cut their vicious right-wing fangs on the Charlottetown Accord? Didn't Reform and the Bloc wipe the floor with you guys in the 1993 election? Did Kim Campbell ever sell that car?

Another Conservative government aspires to a permanent lock on power by opportunistically rewriting the Constitution to suit Quebec's demands: La plus ca change...