Brand new day

Voters made it pretty clear: they’re tired of neverendum referendum talk out of the party’s hardliners - the ones who have maintained control from behind the scenes even after the party selected the more-moderate André Boisclair as its leader.

They’re also tired of business as usual at the provincial-government level. They’re tired of being the highest-taxed jurisdiction in North America, and the right-wing Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) represents the best way to drop that moniker.

The Jean Charest Liberals got one heck of a wake-up call Monday night: the ADQ’s 41 seats were a clear indication Charest has a lot of room for improvement in his second term as premier. Voters, however, didn’t trust him enough to hand him a majority and now he must rely on building consensus rather than pass legislation along partisan lines.

The political tone in the province also seems to be shifting rightward. Tired of the nanny state that takes from us and hands it back out, voters want smaller government and lower taxes. They want government to be accountable, and now they’re to get their chance.

The real winners in this election weren’t the ADQ candidates who were swept to victory in the regions. The real winners were federalists, who no longer will be held hostage and forced to vote Liberal to avoid a referendum.

On the other hand, Dumont’s power is concentrated in the outlying regions; he must make inroads in Montreal to grab a majority government, and he failed to win even a single seat on the island.

Local Liberal incumbents got the message loud and clear. Their party’s leader will no longer be able to count on West Island ‘gimme’ ridings that will allow him to bypass the region on the campaign trail.

Indeed, the West Island’s voting patterns are so predictable that only one party leader - the Green Party’s Scott McKay - bothered to even campaign here. Charest stopped by one evening for a Liberal rally at the Dorval Hilton near the airport but didn’t take questions from local reporters covering the event.

It’s deplorable, but understandable. No point in coming here and wasting time, money and energy if it’s not going to pay off in votes. The fact is, now that the ADQ has shown it’s a political force, federalist voters will be free to vote their consciences and cast their ballot any way they like, rather than holding their noses and voting Liberal because they like living in Canada.

The political tide has shifted. Quebec has more young families than ever before and Dumont’s family-friendly policies and image will help his star rise even further and will hopefully remind Jean Charest there’s a place called the West Island and without it, he might be sitting in opposition right now.

One option for Charest to acknowledge his party’s local success would be to finally elevate Geoff Kelley to a senior cabinet post and to bring veteran MNAs Pierre Marsan or François Ouimet into cabinet as well, thereby ensuring the West Island voices so muted for so long will once more be heard.