From Lysiane Gagnon, a little over a month ago:

Don’t expect a Quebec surprise

As a federal election looms, Quebec might be the quietest place in Canada – the province will yield no surprises, and the battles will be relatively tame.

While Ontario and British Columbia are the ones to watch, chances are that the final results in Quebec will be close to those of the last election.

From March up until about a week ago, the common consensus was this would be a waste of an election. Pundits looked at the polls and declared nothing would change except for a handful of seats.

While we still don’t know how campaign 2011 will end, I think we’ve all been reminded of a valuable lesson. Campaigns matter. Surprises happen. Even when you’re not expecting them to.