Mediaboss Marketing

With only five days of campaigning left, Quebec party leaders are into their final blitz, as the Liberals and the Parti Qubcois take aim at some of their traditional strongholds that swung over to the Coalition Avenir Qubec in the most recent election.

There are also a handful of hotly contested swing ridings being targeted by the three main parties.

The strategies used in the last days before the April 7 vote to reconquer or salvage those seats will say a great deal about the strength and weaknesses of their campaigns.

PQ Leader Pauline Marois is striking hard at ridings held by the Coalition Avenir Qubec in areas north and south of the Island of Montreal, where she is spending most of the final week of the campaign.

Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard is taking aim at the Quebec City region, all but abandoned by the PQ, leaving the CAQ in a two-way race to salvage its traditional base of support in Quebec City. The CAQ is also trying to hold onto seats it won the last time in the suburbs outside of Montreal.

And all eyes are on central Quebec in the ridings around Trois-Rivires, Drummondville and Sherbrooke. The regions seats are held by a mix of all three parties and had several close races the last election. The Liberals and the PQ have been in and out of the region almost every other day, hoping to turn enough CAQ supporters to make important gains.

The campaign was marked by controversies over national unity, ethnic and linguistic minorities and corruption. So much so that Mr. Couillard lamented that his daily policy announcements have passed with little notice.

I smile when people say this election has had no proposals. Weve made one every day since the start, Mr. Couillard said. We really have to try to avoid falling into cynicism.

The Liberals arent the only ones that have been the target of attacks. According to an anonymous source in a Radio-Canada news report, Ms. Maroiss husband, Claude Blanchet, allegedly participated in PQ fundraising activities that may have violated Quebecs election law.

Ms. Marois and Mr. Blanchet denied the charges. His lawyer, Richard Vachon, was considering taking court action claiming the report was libellous and defamatory. Mr. Vachon specializes in defamation lawsuits having successfully represented media magnate and now PQ candidate Pierre Karl Pladeau in a lawsuit against the Socit Radio-Canada.

Read the original:

Quebec parties target swing ridings in final election blitz