Harper heralds end of Liberal era of Canadian politcs; Joe Comartin accuses him of having a one-night stand with Quebec

Harper heralds end of Liberal era of Canadian politcs; Joe Comartin accuses him of having a one-night stand with Quebec

Stephen Harper in a cowboy hat at the Calgary Stampede (Image: Government of Alberta)

“Here we’ve got a guy who’s saying our honeymoon is going to be over quickly with the people of Quebec after he didn’t have anything more than a one-night stand.”

That gem came from Windsor-Tecumseh NDP MP Joe Comartin in response to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s proclamation this weekend at the opening ceremonies of the Calgary Stampede that the Liberal era of Canadian politics is dead in the water and the New Democrats’ supremacy in Quebec will soon follow suit.

We’ll gloss over Harper’s first claim, because given the results of the recent election, it seems that Harper may just be onto something. The questions surrounding the NDP’s surprising rise in La Belle Provence, on the other hand, aren’t so cut and dry, especially considering the party’s rise coincided entirely with the fall of the Bloc Québécois.

But (perhaps poorly chosen) metaphors aside, Comartin’s response seems rather on point. The Conservatives lost over 50 per cent of their seats in Quebec and earned only 16.5 per cent of the popular vote in the last election. So, on that score, the Prime Minister appears to be playing with fire—although the Stampede is probably as safe a place as any to stoke those kinds of political flames.

Either way, the prospect of a one-night stand is probably the most exciting thing to hit Harper Conservatives since this or this. Or possibly ever.

Harper’s ‘arrogance’ will come back to haunt him, opposition says [The Globe and Mail]