Week 5: lose-lose

With attack-style politics thoroughly entrenched in Canada, politics is a blood sport at best, and an all-out war of attrition at worst. Elections are seldom won, but often lost. Such is the logic behind the saying, "oppositions can't win elections, governments lose them."

And yet, oppositions can most certainly lose elections as well. Most recently, Adrian Dix lost the BC election by waffling over Kinder Morgan, opening to door to vicious attacks by the Liberals on his economic platform. Even "winners" can also lose. Marois herself had to settle for a razor-thin 4 seat minority last time because of a lacklustre campaign, even while Charest was well and truly f**ked by the Charbonneau commission on corruption.

In fact, the last time someone actually won an election was when Mulroney fought the 1988 election over NAFTA. His record-setting 211 seats in the 1984 election? That was all Turner making gaffe after gaffe.

So, it's not about winning, at all. Rather, it's all about not losing.

And that brings us to Quebec campaign. The question this week: who can survive?

Couillard's performance in the second debate can be described by one word: limp. He was attacked on all sides on the question of integrity. Perhaps the person who swung hardest was Legault, who has been bleeding support to Couillard over concerns of a PQ majority.

Meanwhile, a bombshell dropped today when allegations surfaced that Marois' husband, Claude Blanchet, accepted illegal donations for her leadership bid from a donor who wanted access to Marois. Although she's strongly denied this, the shadow has already been cast over her integrity. What's worse is, she's been trying all campaign to pin the integrity issue onto Couillard. This could make her look like a crook and a hypocrite.

There has been a lack of polling last week, save for a Leger poll confirming the situation before these two events. Expect the next batch of polls to show declines for both Marois and Couillard. Entering the final week of this campaign, whoever drops less is key.