West Islander set to battle Dumont, Charest

It’s Ile Bizard’s Pauline Marois, and she’s coming in as leader of the Parti Québécois, which has never been able to make inroads in Marois’ backyard.

Marois, who spent most of her career as the MNA for Taillon, a South Shore riding, is facing the unenviable task of derailing the Mario Express in the regions outside Montreal and swaying the soft nationalists residing in Montreal while building support for sovereignty.

How does she propose to do that?

First, by putting aside referendum talk and simply building a state Quebecers can be proud of and that could possibly sustain itself in the unlikely event of a referendum.

The responsibility for building a sovereign state is the challenge of “all Quebecers, not just party leaders or elected officials.”

The notion that all Quebecers join together to build a better province is indeed a noble one. However, as for preparing the state for sovereignty, it’s becoming increasingly likely that even if a Marois-led PQ happened to cobble together a minority government in an election we’ll probably see in the next 12 months, the two balance-of-power parties would work together to quash any referendum motions in the National Assembly. So put that aside.

For PQ supporters and party members, however, Marois’ (at long last) ascension to party leader is exactly what the party needs: a strong, opinionated, decisive leader. André Boisclair tried to be all things to all Quebecers, and it did him in. Marois will make enemies, but her strong leadership will actually give the PQ ship a captain capable of handling the rudder, even in stormy seas. At least she knows who she is and will stay that way, and polls be damned. She might even manage to pull the party back toward the centre of the political spectrum What are Marois’ initial priorities for the PQ? Families, health, education, the environment and the environment. Sounds fairly centrist to us.

And if Marois wins an election and becomes Quebec’s first female premier, maybe the West Island will finally get some love from the provincial government. But then again, with ‘West Island PQ supporter’ quickly becoming an oxymoron on par with ‘military intelligence,’ ‘jumbo shrimp,’ and ‘responsible government spending,’ that may be asking too much.