Reading this TL. Howard a one term PM but Beazley had a tumultuous campaign in 2001 with the Tampa affair and 9/27 attacks which was worse than 9/11 OTL. Labor has won 8 out of 9 Federal Elections since Bob Hawke’s win in 1983.

Can’t wait for the next update
 
Reading this TL. Howard a one term PM but Beazley had a tumultuous campaign in 2001 with the Tampa affair and 9/27 attacks which was worse than 9/11 OTL. Labor has won 8 out of 9 Federal Elections since Bob Hawke’s win in 1983.

Can’t wait for the next update

The next update is taking longer than anticipated. Work has piled up, but I hope to get it posted sometime during the upcoming week.
 
Update #90: Quebec general election, 2012
Quebec politics, as crazy and foreign they might seem to the rest of the country, were fairly predictable when you actually calmed down and looked at it. The Liberals would get the support of federalists, the Parti Quebecois would get the support of Sovereigntists, and one of them would form government. A two-party system as rigid and firm as any other of their neighbouring provinces. But the 2007 general election changed that. Quebecers had grown tired of their relationship with the Liberals and the PQ, and like any strained relationship they opted to experiment a little, electing a minority Action Democratique du Quebec government. The first openly centre-right since the days of the Union Nationale, pundits and observers with little understanding of Quebec dubbed it the end of separatism, and an embracing of the normal left-right political climate in the rest of the country. Less than a year later, after countless missteps, these predictions were tossed in the garbage, along with the political careers of most ADQ MNAs. Under Benoit Pelletier, the Liberals were back in power, with yet another majority. Their coalition of federalists, soft conservatives, and Anglophones had returned to them. Making matters even better for the new government was that their opposition found themselves left in a power vacuum.

Despite increasing her party’s share of the vote and standing in the National Assembly, it was made clear to Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois that unless she won the election, she was out. Never truly liked by voters, never really respected by her colleagues, Marois confided in her aides that it was a relief to be rid of the party as she raced towards the private sector. As for Mario Dumont, no one seriously believed that the one-time lone crusader would opt to remain in provincial politics after tasting real power. So off he went too, pledging to remain in his post as an MNA until the next election. No one believed that either. Like any leader after a landslide victory, Pelletier found himself without challenger nor challenge. An opposition in disarray meant the opportunity to let loose a little. But, as columnist Chantel Hebert warned, such circumstances could give way to arrogance and complacency.

For the ADQ, the last thing any of their members or remaining MNA’s felt was arrogance or complacency. Dumont was gone, the party was in shambles, and it appeared that the party was set to join the Union Nationale in the dustbin of history. But while some saw a party in rigor mortis, others saw an opportunity. Conservative MP Maxime Bernier had, like many passionate ideologues, grown increasingly uncomfortable in Jim Dinning’s party. Excluded from major cabinet positions, his policy ideas rejected, and reportedly feeling isolated in the Quebec Tory caucus, Bernier more than welcomed the overtures by ADQ members for him to take over the leadership of the dying party. If he wasn’t wanted in the Conservative Party, Bernier would go where his talents were appreciated, and where he would have to answer to no one.

But Bernier wasn't the only politician sensing an opportunity. A young veteran of the PQ and sovereigntist movement, Andre Boisclair had been first elected in the 1989 election when he was only twenty-three years old. Going on to serve in the cabinets of Parizeau and Landry, Boisclair became a frequent behind-the-scenes critic of Marois and her team, routinely telling friends and supporters that the moment the leadership opened up, he'd take a shot at the top job. More emphasis on education and economics as the means of achieving sovereignty, as less reliance on unions and the Bloc Quebecois. It was a bold strategy, especially when Gilles Duceppe occupied the office of the Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition. It was no secret that the two men didn't exactly get along. Both viewed the other as placing their own interests ahead of the sovereignty movements. But Boisclair's youthfulness, charisma, pledge to hold another referendum within the first eighteen months of his first mandate, and Duceppe's refusal to stand down from his current post was enough for him to prevail over the more conservative Francois Legault.

Going into the campaign itself, the main accusations leveled against the government and Pelletier was that the Premier lacked a strong legislative vision for the province, and had attempted to tackled far too much in his first mandate. A supporter of Quebec autonomy, Pelletier had sought to establish new powers for the province in the fields of immigration and Healthcare. He also wanted to do away with the traditional first-past-the-post electoral system in favour of proportional representation, which led to public divisions between himself and members of his party. Then there was the failed effort to convince the other Premiers to include Alberta's oil wealth in a new federal-provincial funding formula, the tensions between the government and unions, various scandals involving members of his cabinet, and his continued insistence to avoid issues based around the constitution and the Bloc Quebecois. In other words, not much had been accomplished, and what had wasn't all that impressive. The economy was a little better, unemployment was down or around where it had been four years earlier. But after all the hope and belief that after being tossed out in 2007, the Liberals had shown that they had changed little, and were prepared to change even less. Here was a dour, analytical academic, up against two passionate opposition leaders who clearly represented clear visions of change for Quebec. Quebecers still weren't happy, and found Pelletier, Boisclair, and Bernier unappealing, and their policies either uninteresting or downright disappointing. Liberals were more of the same. The PQ wanted soveriegnty no matter what. Bernier and the ADQ wanted to cut, cut, cut.

On Election Day voters punished each of the parties by handing them a situation that would, theoretically, force them to work with one another; a minority Liberal government. Pelletier had lost some scandal-plagued ministers, some star candidates, the PQ had made gains but had fallen short yet again, the ADQ was kept on life support, and the minor parties were given some pity. Unless one of the three main party leaders could offer a vision that most Quebecers could support, or at least tolerate, it seemed liked voters were prepared to stomach some political instability for a while.

Quebec-Election2012.png


MNAs2012.png

Premiers of Quebec:
Daniel Johnson, Jr. (Liberal) 1994
Jacques Parizeau (Parti Quebecois) 1994-1996
Bernard Landry (Parti Quebecois) 1996-1999
Jean Charest (Liberal) 1999-2007
Mario Dumont (ADQ) 2007-2008
Benoit Pelletier (Liberal) 2008-


Thinking of how you feel right now, if a PROVINCIAL election were held tomorrow, which of the following parties’ candidates would you, yourself, be most likely to support?
 
Hiatus Announcement 01/28/2019
How's the next update coming along?

This is probably as good a time to announce it. I’m not sure when the next update will be posted.

That’s right, the TL is on hiatus again.

I’m just feeling burnt out by Lazarus at the moment and need to take a step away from it. It’s not dying by any means, but work and this TL means I can’t tackle some other fun ideas I have rolling around this head of mine.

In my test thread I’m working on a mini-series called Renegade Down, and it’s a nice casual way for me to try some stuff I haven’t done before or haven’t done in awhile.

Don’t worry, I’ll come back to this eventually in some way or another.
 
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