Let's imagine the Liberals are trying to consolidate the anti-CAQ vote behind them.
If they go after the Conservative vote, to get someone supporting the right-wing Conservatives to back the centrist Liberals, that voter would have to bypass the centre-right CAQ first. The transition is a far one to make.
If it's QS or the PQ they were targeting, then you'd have to take voters that support independence to back a party that is proudly federalist. The autonomist CAQ stands between those options.
Of course, voters' decisions aren't as simple as that. But the CAQ is in the middle on a lot of issues, so it means the anti-CAQ vote is divided and the CAQ sits between those divides. It is hard to consolidate that anti-CAQ vote because it is all over the place on economics, social policy and identity issues, and a lot of the anti-CAQ vote might find the other parties more objectionable on any one of these issues than the CAQ, which prevents them from all getting behind the same option.
Let me try to illustrate with an example.
Let's imagine the Liberals are trying to consolidate the anti-CAQ vote behind them.
If they go after the Conservative vote, to get someone supporting the right-wing Conservatives to back the centrist Liberals, that voter would have to bypass the centre-right CAQ first. The transition is a far one to make.
If it's QS or the PQ they were targeting, then you'd have to take voters that support independence to back a party that is proudly federalist. The autonomist CAQ stands between those options.
Of course, voters' decisions aren't as simple as that. But the CAQ is in the middle on a lot of issues, so it means the anti-CAQ vote is divided and the CAQ sits between those divides. It is hard to consolidate that anti-CAQ vote because it is all over the place on economics, social policy and identity issues, and a lot of the anti-CAQ vote might find the other parties more objectionable on any one of these issues than the CAQ, which prevents them from all getting behind the same option.