Losing hurts, or why the PQ chose Jean-Franois Lise as their leader

Early in the Parti Qubcoisleadership race, a former adviser to the party took to calling it "a losing machine" in a series of columns in the Journal de Montral.

The description, if harsh, was based on the party's recent struggles at the ballot box. Since 2003,they have only been in power for an 18-month period, and only with a minority government at that.

Even the Maple Spring and the ethical tribulations of the laterCharestyears weren't enough to propel the PQ to a majority.

Losing hurts. And it is perhaps that sentiment, more than anything else, that helps explain the party's decision to entrust its future withJean-FranoisLise.

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How do you dismantle a losing machine?

The central plank of Lise's campaign was a promise not to hold a referendum in the first term of a PQ government.

A Liberal party hobbled by ethics scandals, as both past and present Liberal governments have been, could always hold out the fear of a referendum to reel back ambivalent supporters.

Quebec's economy has put up passable numbers in recent quarters. Quebecers, already debt-laden, will jeopardize this fragile growth by voting for the PQ, or so goes the argument of Premier Philippe Couillard.

By removing the referendum question, at least in the short-term, the party is hoping to cover itsAchilles heel.

Lise'sstrategy looked like a gamble at the outset of the race. But as voting day drew near there coalesced a feeling among PQ members that this made him the most dangerous candidate in the eyes of Liberals.

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A cartoon that appeared in Le Devoirwhenpolls opened last week was telling in this respect. Itshowed Couillard kneeling before a statue of SaintJude, the patron saint of lost causes.

Couillard is seen praying for the election of Martine Ouellet, the only candidate to explicitly promise a referendum in the PQ's first term.Behind him is Couillard'sHouse leader, Jean-Marc Fournier.

"Second choice: anyone but Lise. Amen," the Fournier figure says.

The long road ahead

But, of course, taking the referendum off the table doesn't guarantee the PQ victory in the 2018 provincialelection. It simply meansthey won't gift the election to the Liberals.

• Jean-FranoisLise'sorder of business: oust Liberals, then talk sovereignty

Going forward, building a winning machinemeans articulating a coherent alternative. That will take some work.

The party currently holds 28 seats, compared to the Liberals'70, the Coalition Avenir Qubec's20 and Qubec Solidaire's three.

Mathematically, the PQ needs to steal seats from the Liberals and the CAQ, two economically conservative parties.

In Lise'svictory speech, he called the Liberals a party obsessed with austerity. And he repeatedly described the CAQ as a "right-wing federalist party."

For good measure, he accused their leader, one-time PQ cabinet Franois Legault, of having gone over to the "dark side" for having left the sovereigntist camp. There was no hint of irony in his voice.

It sounded as ifLiseplansto mount his Liberal ambush from the left. Problem is, there'snot much ground to be gained there.

The inner workings of thewinning machine still have to be worked out.

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