Thoughts on Charest and the election

• The turkeys at Radio-Canada owe him a beer and an apology.
  
• He was the only leader who spoke in English (I mean, for crissake, even Lucien Bouchard said a few words in English in 1998).
  
• He was (bizarrely) the only leader who openly acknowledged that this election shows Quebec to be divided (I mean, Mario "autonomiste" Dumont was shut out of Montreal and the Outaouais; even Harper has Cannon).
  
• At some point, someone is going to have to notice that he is probably the first Quebec political leader since Duplessis to lead his party to a plurality of popular votes in three consecutive elections (1998, 2003, and now 2007).
  
• If he's smart, he gives Mario about $100 million to spend in a budget amendment bill, and hope to God that Dumont can't control his troops.
  
• Harper cannot claim victory based on this result.
  
• We'll be back at this again in a year.