If Harper tries to make Quebec happy, he will alienate his base.
Conservative voters did not cast their vote for Harper to have him turn around and implement socialist policies to suck up to Quebec.
The guy to go to for advice is Jean Chrétien.
All the intelligentsia hated Jean Chrétien in Québec.
And he still managed to win the referendum.
Why?
Because you do not need that "Québec consensus" to win in Québec.
You need to string together enough of a coalition to make people want to choose your party.
You need to understand Québec on a gut level, not on some official level. If you buy all the crap about the "Quebec consensus", especially when your ideology wants nothing to do with it, you will lose. There is nothing Quebec hates more as a fake.
Jean Charest will probably be re-elected in Québec. I know, I know, he's really really hated. The problem is that there is no great love for Pauline Marois either, and I think his stance against the students will be enough to garner votes because there are a heck of a lot of people who are fed up with leftists trying to run the province.
Also: never, ever, underestimate the Quebec Liberal Party machine. They have the Eye of the Tiger when it comes to elections. If there's a way to win, they will. They understand politics better than anyone in Quebec.
