To butcher an old saying, I love Montreal but hate Montrealers. Not for the usual reasons - we're the best drivers in the country and we wouldn't be so hard on our hockey team if they'd just, well, you know, win. However, politically, we are a troop of Alice in Wonderlands, asleep in reality, dazed and confused in fantasy. Proof comes from this latest poll showing that our pick for best Prime Minister is Jack Layton.
I'll let you read the pollster's analysis of this and decide for yourself how valid it is. Are Montrealers more left-wing than the rest of Quebec? Sure. But mostly, Montrealers are delusional creatures. Jack Layton's popularity will translate into 0 seats - when voting time comes, Montrealers will still be disco-dancing sheep and vote along political faults long buried since the 70s. Reality will never line up with this wishful thinking. As for the delusion itself, Montrealers behave like abused spouses in a decades long marriage - their pocketbooks are raided by all levels of government in exchange for a mix of indifference and crappy services - but they never do anything about it, even just acknowledging that they could do something about it.
The poll contains lots of good news to warm the heart of any Harpermaniac.
Montreal's no. 2 pick (and no. 1 nationally by Grand Canyon-esque margins): Stephen Harper. In fact, he and Jack Layton are, within the margin of error, tied in Montreal.
As for the local boys, Gilles Duceppe and Stephane Dion are big losers - with the Liberal leader coming dead last. The cleverest of pundits assured us that Stephane Dion would be popular in Quebec but where he should be most popular in this province, he's a Whopper to Stephen Harper's Shish Taouk.
That Gilles Duceppe edges Stephane Dion should give migraines to the Liberal party strategists - Gilles Duceppe can't dress in the morning without changing his outfit three times let alone run the country. And everybody knows that.
