Another Poll, and a Glimpse at Harper's Quebec Strategy

This poll from SES shows the Tories holding a slender leader, 34% to 32% over the Liberals, with 16% for the NDP, 13% for the Bloc Quebecois and 5% for the Greens.

The poll also shows, as other polls have done as well, that Tory support has collapsed in Quebec, to 12%, with the Libs hauling in 25% and the Bloc at 50%. Duceppe must like this last figure, so expect an election sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, this article from the Sun Chain's Greg Weston discusses the Tories plan to reverse their fortunes in Quebec...by spending like Liberals:

All week, Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon has been a busy boy -- one day, he's in Montreal announcing $37 million for public transit anti-terrorism programs; the next, it's a new $32-million highway extension in the Gatineau region north of the nation's capital.

Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre Blackburn, the Conservative minister responsible for corporate welfare in Quebec, breezed into Riviere-du-Loup with a federal cheque for $29 million, all for one company specializing in "peat-moss technology."

Down the way in the Beauce region of the province, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier doled out a government grant of $23,820 "to promote female entrepreneurship" (think about that one), then popped into Montreal to announce new anti- pollution standards for motorcycles. (Who says the Conservatives don't have a clean air plan?)

And so it went in the week it rained cash on Quebec, more than $100 million of federal giveaways -- and that was only up to the close of business, er, handouts, yesterday.