I don't expect this diary will get a lot of attention, what with the awesome DNC convention going on, but I have some news from north of the border to convey.
Today a general election was held in the province of Quebec, and the Parti Quebecois has defeated the Liberal Party. Pauline Marois will be the first woman premier of Quebec, quite an accomplishment given that women in Quebec were denied the right to vote provincially until 1940.
More apres le croissant.
The latest is that the PQ has won the largest number of seats, but not enough to form a majority government. This is actually quite a good result for the corruption-ridden Liberals, who have been in power the past 9 years; the PQ was widely expected to form a small majority, in which case they could have pushed their agenda (including a referendum on sovereignty) without any wheeling and dealing with opposition parties. Now they will have to deal, and a sovereignty referendum is probably off the table for the time being.
I'm pleased with this result. The PQ is a solid social-democratic party, and the Liberals are... just awful, with ties to the Mafia and several investigations into corruption going on. As to sovereignty, I have always believed that any province in Canada should have the right to determine its own future.
In any case, there will be interesting times ahead in our second-largest province, and we can celebrate a woman winning an impressive victory.