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MONTREAL – In the campaign leading to their first election victory in 2006, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives went to great lengths to win over Quebecers. Harper answered Quebec demands by promising more money for the provinces, a greater role for Quebec on the international stage and a new era of open federalism to replace the “paternalistic” ways of previous federal governments.

For their efforts, the Conservatives were rewarded with 10 Quebec seats, a breakthrough for the party but one they have never been able to build upon.

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This campaign, the Conservatives have dangled hardly any Quebec-specific goodies, and yet thanks to their relentless hammering on the niqab issue, they are surging in the polls here — one poll had them doubling their support in a month — and are on track to surpass their 2006 result.

Back in August, Quebec’s 78 ridings were not expected to offer many surprises. The province’s 2011 flirt with the NDP appeared to have solidified into something serious, and the party enjoyed a 20-point lead in the polls. Now as the orange NDP wave recedes, both Harper and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau are trying to prove wrong the conventional wisdom that they are unloved in Quebec.