It's election time and our soapbox orators are in fine form!

With public support for the governing Liberals increasing and the PQ being followed very closely by Mario Dumont's ADQ, it's looking like a three-party race and attacks are flying left and right.

When party leaders aren't out-and-about kissing babies, shaking hands, bowling, vote pandering and bonding with the "common man", they're busy engaging in all-out war with each other.

With less than three weeks to go, what's making headlines? Is it medicare, the fiscal imbalance, daycare, social programs? Nope. Not even close. In fact, the name calling began before the Quebec campaign even got off the ground! New Liberal candidate, Pierre Arcand, compared ADQ leader, Mario Dumont, to French right-wing nationalist Jean-Mari Le Pen, because the latter believes that Quebec should stop bending over backwards to accommodate cultural minorities. Insenced, Dumont called for a public retraction and threatened to sue.

A young Muslim girl is expelled from a soccer match because she's wearing a Muslim head scarf. Before the International Soccer Federation even has a chance to comment on the issue, Jean Charest, who must be an expert on physical activity, since he's so good at running his mouth, stands up and proclaims that "rules are rules" and must be adhered to.

Dumont jumps in and agrees, instantaneously making Charest nervous about being associated too closely with someone who's starting to appeal to ultra-conservative rural Quebecers who still consider farming and religion to be majorly important in their lives.

André Boislair, also known as the gay rich kid from Outremont in rural circles, jumps on the bourgeois bandwagon and quickly distances himself from the other two, preaching cultural diversity and tolerance. This tolerance however doesn't seem to extend to Boiclair performing in badly acted skits like "Brokeback Mountain" on "Tout le monde en parle" and admitting to doing blow in office. Some backwards radio host from Saguenay declares on air that Quebecers won't be voting for a "tapette", come election time.

While clearly a deplorable homophobic statement, not even worthy of a reply, Boislair jumps on the chance for symathetic votes and declares indignantly that voters shouldn't judge him on his sexuality, but on his skills as a leader. Don't worry, André; many won't judge you, but they won't vote for you either.

Demagogy is a political strategy to obtain and gain political power by appealing to popular prejudices, fears and expectations of the public. Hitler was a famous demagogue, but so was Pericles, the leader of Athens during its Golden Age. Being a demagogue does not presuppose that the leader is a bad one; just a lazy one.

It’s easy to use logical fallacies, half-truths, personal attacks and demonization of opponents to convince people to vote for you, but it's not based on anything concrete and factual. William E. Vaughan, an American columnist and author, once said: "There's a mighty big difference between good sound reasons, and reasons that sound good." Sadly, the focus in most political speeches today is not the truth, but persuasion. At all costs.