I haven't been on the boards for a while now, but nice to see vary of solid posts... thanks for that.

I too have to say that I am not knowledgable when it comes to Quebec politics. From what I have read, Charest still have a very good chance. As much as people might not like him, they seem to be tired with the sepertists as well. Many someone can eloborate.

Now Charest has always said that shale gas will be determined by science, and guided by science. Not blabbering activist etc etc. The science will be favorable I have no doubt. Last night I saw something interesting on CNN when they were talking about fracking. There was one man who went down to Pennsylvania (can't remember the towns name), and they were talking about how 15 resisdents signed a petition that their water was polluted from fracking...he then mentioned, that there were also 1500 people that signed and said their water was perfectly fine. He said we need to give those 1500 ppl a voice as well since all anyone picks on are the few bad cases. These shales over there are so much more shallow then Quebec is as well...the utica in Quebec is 12-13,000 feet deep...the only problem we need to watch for, is surface problems...not aquifers and this has been repeatidly mentioned by Mr. Binnion.

Charest has this Plan Nord that he wants to implement.

http://plannord.gouv.qc.ca/english/

Now I can tell you, if Quebec doesn't go ahead with fracking because of just activists (which they have already said it will be about science, but just for arguments sake)...then you will be sending a bad message to all private investors that they are trying to attract to the province. People aren't going to risk their billions to a place they know isn't stable enough with these issues...it creates a poor image.

Yes Quebec doesn't know about oil and gas, but I think this stop is very political based. Charest wasn't going to jeopardize his second 4 year term over this. Now he's giving the people some time, putting the issue on the back burner and it'll imo move forward after. He has a lot of ambition in this from the start and in this Plan Nord, to economically move Quebec to actually do the same as other provinces. He's smart in that he's treading lightly...

Cheers guys...hope everyone has a good weekend!

Rocco