How to win a Quebec election.

Finishing up at the microphone she suddenly remembered something they had told her– get closer to ordinary voters.

She wheeled around and dashed back to the podium and shouted “I’m going for the Cup” waving her arm above her in a victory sign.

The audience, stunned, burst into laughter and applauded her again. Pauline trying to hard, perhaps? Luckily nobody asked her “Which Cup, Madam Marois, Stanley or Grey?”

An old fart at the back of the hall who’s seen a lot of politics turned to his buddy and whispered: “Rright now the cup I’m going for is at the wine bar over there.”

Everybody in the PQ says Marois must get closer to ordinary folk if she is to win this election. Sure, she can talk economics. She’s a former finance minister. She has credibility.

But she has to link up economics to the family. The family is the PQ’s trump card. Everybody knows the PQ brought $5-a-day childcare to Quebec. Marois herself raised four children. She has credibility as a mom and as a financial expert. When you got it, use it.

Jean Charest is in a different situation. He’s already in power.

He exudes firm decision-making. That’s his trademark.

In tough times people look to their leaders for strength. They want leaders with an idea of how to get us out of this mess.

They want vision. Right! Vision! The ‘vision’ thing. It got Barack Obama into power. It could beat Charest.

And empathy. Charest has to show that. He doesn’t have to use the Bill Clinton line: “I feel your pain” but he has to show he understands, and is really trying to help, not just get a majority.

The Liberals’ slogan: “l’Économie d’abord” isn’t worth much. Who dreamed that up?

Better something that shows Charest cares and wants help solving the problem – something like “Fighting together for Quebec.”

That speaks of a threat to the province – which there is – and it encourages banding together with Charest to meet the challenge.

So what if it’s got a little nationalist tingle to it. That doesn’t hurt in Quebec.

Charest doesn’t control the banks, the markets or the financial sector. Nobody does, except the banks, the markets or the financial sector.

But people want to know he’s trying, whether its jobs, pensions, wages, or whatever. They want inspiration.

If he needs a model, there’s always Jean Lesage. Without him we’d still be at the mercy of the big private hydro companies.

Charest can still stand up to the feds, at least better than he did last week. No need to fear a Harper backlash. He’s way too busy as it is.

Mario Dumont is in the worst shape of all three leaders. At 14 percent in the polls all he can do is save the furniture.

ADQ candidates must run their own campaigns at this point. Go for whatever works in the ridingeven if means contradicting the colleague in the next riding. It’s every man for himself in the ADQ.

Reasonable accommodation? Forget about it. Don’t even mention it. That’s all over. Quebeckers have moved on. There are other things to worry about. Like the economy and protecting their families.

Dumont can still use family. He still has credibility on that score. But boring, long-winded speeches on the merits of private enterprise versus public investment? No way, Mario. People will go right now for whatever gets them out of the crisis.

Dumont can talk about health, emergency room line-ups, the lack of doctors and nurses. He has credibility. He wasn’t the one who fired doctors and nurses 10 years ago, nor the one who did nothing for the last five years.

The ADQ won’t be the government, likely not even the Official Opposition, but that doesn’t mean it has to disappear.

Right now Charest is cruising towards the majority government he seeks. But that’s now. Remember the federal election. Ask Harper where his majority went.

Who knows how this Quebec election could end? For any of them it could be as the bus driver says: “Move forward to back of the bus, please.”