The Liberals may not have garnered a lot of votes in the last federal election, especially in Quebec. But they're golden there provincially. The Grits swept the vote in La Belle Province Monday night, taking home a majority government for their troubles, ending a difficult year of minority rule.

Liberal boss Jean Charest took a huge risk calling an election just 20 months into his current mandate, but it worked. His party was returned to power, making the one time Tory boss the first Quebec premier to stage a three-peat since the days of strongman Maurice Duplessis, whose Union nationale accomplished the feat in the 1950s.

The Parti Quebecois also did well as the opposition, but the Action democratique du Quebec or ADQ was crushed, prompting  an announcement from its leader, Mario Dumont, that he'd be resigning despite winning his own seat.

There's a certain ironic parallel in the vote, which came less than two months after a federal vote with a very different outcome. In a page that sounded like it came right out of Stephen Harper's playbook, Charest told voters he had no choice but to call an election early to ensure Quebec had a 'stable' government in hard economic times.

It didn't work that well for Harper. But it paid off handsomely for his Liberal counterpart, who remains Premier with a new robust grip on power.

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