And speaking of autonomists...

I've just realised that most of my readership may in fact not be familiar with the links between the Harper Conservatives and Quebec's ADQ as I mentioned in my previous post. On doing a little digging, I discovered that my source for this information, a Canadian Press article written by one Alex Panetta, was only published in one Ontario paper, the Owen Sound Sun-Times (and if you don't know why I regularly read the Owen Sound Sun-Times, don't bother asking). Anyhoo, barring a searchable archive feature on the Sun-Times website, I will brave a CP cease-and-decist copywright injunction and post the article below in full:

Tory, ADQ ties run deep; Conservatives chock full of former Action democratique operatives (The Owen Sound Sun Times, March 6, 2007)
Copywright: The Canadian Press - Alexander Panetta
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Extensive ties between the Harper government and Quebec's third-largest political party belie the popular wisdom that the federal powers that be are pulling in unison for a Liberal re-election in the province.

From the lowest echelons of the federal government all the way up to the Prime Minister's Office, political operatives who worked for and in some cases helped build the Action democratique du Quebec are sprinkled throughout the Harper Conservatives. "I'd even say a majority of the Conservatives' francophone personnel are Adequistes," one federal government official said Monday.

The close bond with the small-c conservative ADQ explains why the federal Tories are claiming partial neutrality in the Quebec campaign. Ministerial staff have the green light to criticize the sovereigntist Parti Quebecois but are forbidden from endorsing either of the two other parties. The ban on open campaigning does not extend to Conservative MPs, one of whom - Jacques Gourde - stumped for an ADQ candidate in a Quebec suburb last week.

The common bond between the Tories and Mario Dumont's party extends far beyond personnel.

Dumont was approached informally several times before the 2006 election about running for the federal party - and he insisted every time he has no intention of ever making the move to Ottawa.

Instead, he appears to have brought a piece of Tory Ottawa to provincial politics. With his party closing in on its two bigger rivals in the polls, Dumont has adopted a nearly identical campaign strategy to the one Harper used in 2006. He espouses similar ideas on child care, fiscal policy and law and order.

Those platform planks are being driven home in a daily announcement around 9 a.m. where Dumont sets the tone for the day's news coverage the same way Harper did in the 2006 election.

"It seems to be working fairly well for Mario," said Philippe Gervais, who has been a senior campaign official for the federal Tories and both the provincial Liberals and ADQ. That announcement-a-morning strategy - lifted from the playbook of Australian Prime Minister John Howard - was imported into Canadian politics by Harper after his disastrous final days of the 2004 federal campaign.

Dumont suffered a similar fate in the last provincial election. His support tanked in 2003 as he chose to comment on topics seemingly hand-picked by his opponents.

In Harper's case, he grew visibly frustrated amid daily grillings over same-sex marriage and on the Liberal charge he would suspend women's abortion rights.

For Dumont, the daily torment sprang from that most pervasive and perennial question in Quebec politics: Are you a sovereigntist or a federalist? Eager to draw support from both sides of the nationalist divide, Dumont has steadfastly avoided describing himself as either. But Dumont - who began his political life as a federalist provincial Liberal, then campaigned for the sovereigntists in the 1995 referendum - has consistently said it's time for Quebec to move beyond the national debate.

Federal Tories admit some consternation about Dumont's checkered constitutional past but they believe he's come full circle to his federalist roots.

If the Harper government has any questions about the party, it doesn't need to look very far for answers. Dumont's tour guide from the 2003 provincial election - Jean-Maurice Duplessis - is now the tour manager in Harper's office.

International Co-operation Minister Josee Verner, who was once a provincial Liberal staffer, made the switch to the ADQ and was a Quebec City regional organizer for the party in 2003. MP Stephen Blaney ran for the party in 1998 and fellow MP Jacques Gourde was an organizer in the last provincial campaign.

At least three spokespeople for Tory ministers - Jean-Luc Benoit, Isabelle Bouchard and Isabelle Fontaine - worked for the ADQ, as did Michele Lalonde, the chief of staff to Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn.

Gervais was the Tories' deputy campaign manager in 2006, helped run Dumont's tour in 2003 and served a similar function with Charest in the 1998 provincial campaign. He says the federal Tories harbour no bias for either of the non-separatist parties. "I think Mr. Harper has had a very good relationship with the Liberal government and also has a good one with Mr. Dumont," he said.

"Is there a preference there? I don't think so. It's more of a hands-off approach and let Quebecers decide what they want to do. I guess the only one they don't want is the PQ."