Election hangover items

Montreal now has six Québec solidaire MNAs clustered in the middle of the island. Notably, journalist Vincent Marissal beat Jean-François Lisée in Rosemont, on a really bad night for the Parti québécois, and Lisée has stepped down. Full results here on CBC with a zoomable map: Montreal remained stolidly red except for those six QS ridings, and two CAQ ridings at the far eastern end of the island. (QS also won ridings outside Montreal for the first time, giving it a total ten seats.)

Radio-Canada crunched the numbers to examine the results if we had the proportional representation promised us but always held out of reach, because it’s never in the interest of ruling parties to embark on that change. (tldr: the CAQ would still have won, although not as overwhelmingly.)

Provisionally, Élections Québec says just under 70% of eligible voters turned out.

There’s a message for the PLQ in the defeat of Gerry Sklavounos’s old deputy George Tsantrizos in my riding. Tsantrizos refused categorically to say much of anything to anybody. He didn’t participate in the local debate and he wouldn’t talk to the media. It was obvious that someone had said to him “You’re running for the Liberals and you’re Greek, so you’re a shoo-in. Campaigning – making speeches, going on camera – means you could slip up and produce a bad soundbite. Just keep your mouth shut and it’s a sure thing.”

Except it wasn’t, last night.

Good analysis of the whole situation from Jonathan Montpetit. But contrast his view with this from Paul Wells: “The urge to vote Legault was as much a yearning for comfort as a zest for change. He’s like the beat-up old shoes you put on when trendy fashions pinch.”