there were only two issues in front of quebeckers to differentiate the ndp and liberals.

1) marijuana.
2) sovereigntism.

and, quebec voted federalist over sovereigntist.

it's probably not more complex than this.

so, why did layton get the break through? it was probably simply due to ignatieff's immense unpopularity, and the fact that layton had better bonafides than ignatieff in terms of being a quebecker.

quebec votes quebecker, first and foremost. layton was from montreal. i think ignatieff was from britain, or transylvania, or something...