Well… those of us here in Quebec are probably all a little nonplussed this morning.

Yesterday was the first time since I have been able to vote, that I didn’t. This very active decision came after much internal struggle and outer discussion. My son finally ended up putting it best… “You will be the least unhappy if you just don’t vote.” A little crazy as a reason but it felt true when I heard it. And, now, this morning seeing the details of the results, I am glad of my position with respect to all of this. (I will though and also admit that ten minutes before the polls closed I thought — again, again, again — “You could still make it to the polls if you left now.” Deciding by ‘least unhappy’ is very unpleasant and not at all satisfying.)

Our riding is 90% francophone, 8% anglophone and 2% allophone (I guess I’m part of the 2%). It has been PQ since the early 90’s. Yesterday it switched to being ADQ. The winning margin wasn’t huge but it was enough. And I can’t say that I remember seeing even one poster in our area with an image of the person who now represents us. By the name, I assume that the person is a “she”.

Lots of televised leader debates. Some pamphlets found in the mailbox. No door knocking. Lots of huge, full-colour PQ posters of this area’s candidate on posts along the streets. Lots of huger, full-colour posters of this area’s Liberal candidate. A couple of ADQ posters with Mario Dumont’s picture on them. There were a few, well-placed, discrete, I-like-this-size Green Party “Je vote!” posters and even one with a photo of this area’s candidate. But I don’t remember seeing a single image of the person who ended up winning the riding. (And just to make sure, I checked with my eagle-eye children and they don’t remember one either.) This is nuts.

I guess Mario Dumont’s passion, perserverance, dedication and persistence gave normally-PQ voters an alternative. I love Quebec. I love Quebec’s passion and intelligence and culture. And I felt a little heartbroken for the PQists. You don’t “support” the PQ. You are PQ. And I guess a bunch of folks decided that they can be “Q” while looking towards issues beyond being part of the “P”. Passion and intelligence and culture in a new world context. Okay. I can get behind that.

What I can’t get behind is incompetence, lack of position, lack of “assuming responsibility”, lack of experience and lack of plan. I don’t have much to say about the Liberals at all. They have lost any remaining respect they had in my eyes and mind. And, the ADQ campaign was to work towards official house party status, meaning 12 seats. They began with 4 representatives. They were working towards 15. They dreamed of maybe 20. They now have 41. They have gone from a non party to being the official opposition party. And most of the 41 representatives have been ADQ party members since 2007. I guess if there’s passion and leading intelligence, there’s lots of room for benefit of the doubt.

So… will the results of learning on-the-fly be better than bungled planning? I guess we’ll see. Things will be as frozen here as they are in the US but we’re split across past/future/some-connection-to-something rather than the US’ two party Great Divide.

I believe that we don’t quite know what we want. We don’t want we have. But we don’t quite know how to articulate “the answer”. The Baby Boomer, hippie generation. Somehow still responding to “authority” and not quite grabbing hold of it even though we have it.

I will say that I noticed the number of winning women last night was amazingly high. I’m sure that this means something. I likely believe the more cynical reasons for this than the “oh I finally get it” ones but perhaps this bodes well for the next election.

Anyway, I am slightly nonplussed. And not as unhappy as I could have been. Perhaps this government will work towards “more happy” rather than “less unhappy” for the next race. I certainly count on this from the next generations.