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ST-CHARLES-SUR-RICHELIEU — It’s a sunny fall day in this, the land of the patriots, and Pierre Régimbald is doing what he enjoys — dropping in on his neighbours for a chat.

Having lived here for years, he knows them well, the names of their children, their pets.

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It’s that way in this village of 1,700 nestled on the banks of the Richelieu River, the site of a violent battle between the Patriotes and the British in 1837, where the flag of that rebellion still flies and the people are proud Quebec nationalists.

Photo by Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette

Régimbald will tell you he has a pretty good idea of how people here voted in the 2011 federal election — and which way the wind is blowing this time.

“My 10 neighbours, they were all NDP,” Régimbald tells a roving reporter who stops for a chat. “But that’s all over this time.”

“If only he (Tom Mulcair) had said, ‘Enough.’

“It’s all well and good to be tolerant. Everyone I spoke to thinks the same way. He needed to be clear and firm.”