TORONTO, April 11 (UPI) -- Monday may deal a massive blow to Quebec's separatist movement.
That's when voters in the predominately French-speaking province head to the polls and there are signs they are in the mood for a major political change.
A new poll finds the provincial Liberal party could form a majority government -- a stunning, sudden turn of events just weeks after polls gave the governing Parti-Quebecois the lead.
It says 38 percent of decided voters support the Liberals, while the PQ has 30 percent support. But when the undecided voters are appropriately divided up, pollsters say Liberal support jumps to 46 percent.
The PQ still trails with 33 percent and the upstart Action Democratique du Quebec lags well behind with 17 percent.
Liberal leader Jean Charest is clearly buoyed by the news -- appearing confident, but not cocky.
He's spending the final days of the election campaign on a whirlwind tour through more than a dozen districts or "ridings," as they're called in Canada.
"Every campaign I have ever been involved in, I have worked until the very last moment," he told a reporter in one of many media interviews he's done day and night. "I take nothing for granted." He added, "That's my style. That's the way I am."
The PQ is struggling despite leader Bernard Landry's unique vote-grabbing proposal to give families with young children a four-day workweek.
The Liberals, meanwhile, have made health care the main focus of their campaign.
It sounds like Deputy Prime Minister John Manley needs something else to keep busy, now that he's done his own tax return.
So he's decided to run for the federal Liberal leadership.
Trouble is he's a fiscally prudent conservative man, one who wisely doesn't want to wager the family home to bankroll an expensive campaign.
"I can't put my family at risk," he explains. "We have a house and loans and stuff."
That's why he waited to see how much money he could raise before declaring his intentions.
Hoping to collect a cool half-million dollars at one intimate cocktail party, Manley's organizers called it a night after counting $700,000.
Seeking comfort in that success, the minister officially launched his campaign in his hometown of Ottawa Thursday.
Manley predicts he won't spend more than $4 million crisscrossing the country, drumming up more support and setting up local campaign offices.
But the money may be for naught.
Former Finance Minister Paul Martin has been raising cash and support for a leadership bid for year.
So much so, he's considered by many to be the unofficial front-runner for the job.
Still, Manley isn't put off by that.
"I cannot stand by and watch the party I love or the country I serve sleepwalk its way into the 21st century," Manley said.
"There cannot be a coronation of the next prime minister of Canada."
Jean Chretien, the current prime minister, will retire next February.
The Liberals will choose his replacement at a leadership convention this November.
And finally, another casualty of war?
It seems the Quebec government is toning down its "French-ness," no thanks to France and its opposition to the U.S.-led war on Iraq.
The province's marketers have decided not to highlight its French-speaking culture in tourist brochures being mailed out to American travelers.
Quebec's tourism logo will still be "Bonjour, Quebec" and native superstar Celine Dion will still be its spokeswoman.
Authorities are apparently thinking, though, about changing a line that promotes Quebec's "French joie de vivre."
