L.Ian Macdonald on Mario

I was hoping that Mario dumont and the ADQ were the beginning of a conservative party coming back to Quebec provincially.
Mario has some interesting ideas, but he has been totally ineffective in the national assembly. He has also been almost a one man show. i will be voting ADQ, but I have little hope of their success in the Quebec election. I hope they can keep enough strength to fight another day.

L. Ian MacDonald: Mario DuMont's last kick at the can
Posted: November 21, 2008, 9:30 AM by Kelly McParland
Full Comment, L. Ian MacDonald, Canadian politics
Mario Dumont is Quebec’s incredible shrinking man. Only a year-and-a-half ago, he rode a wave of conservative and rural dissent on identity issues to become opposition leader in a minority provincial legislature. But he badly failed the test as leader of a government-in-waiting, and he’s paying the price in the current election campaign in which he’s running a distant third in the polls.

What happened? Well, as Robert Bourassa often said, a week is a long time in politics, and a year is an eternity. In four sittings of the minority legislature over the last 18 months, Dumont misjudged every tactical opportunity, as between brinksmanship and cohabitation. He also failed to present his front bench as an alternative government to the Liberals. His Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) was strictly a one-man band.