Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor fired the latest salvo Friday, announcing an expansion of Canadian Forces Base Bagotville in the Saguenay region that will bring 550 military personnel to the economically depressed area.
The move will bring $500 million in new equipment, upgrades and infrastructure to the base and about $80 million a year in extra salaries and other spending to the region.
The Saguenay expansion comes on the heels of Thursday's pomp-filled announcement about the relaunch of the College militaire royal de Saint-Jean south of Montreal, a move that will pump about $10 million into the college each year.
This spring, the Tories unveiled a $1.3-billion plan in Quebec City to purchase used tanks and refurbish them.
The announcements were all carefully staged in places where Tories won many seats in the 1980s, got swept in the '90s, and climbed back into contention more recently, winning one seat in Saguenay and five in Quebec City in 2006.
The Tories are making shrewd political moves that happen to help Quebecers feel connected to the army, says a retired local politician and longtime Conservative foe.
Delbert Deschambault was mayor of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, home of the college, when the Liberals closed it in 1995.
"It was like a bomb for St-Jean," he said.
Deschambault then ran for the Liberals in the 1997 election, hoping to gain a seat at the caucus table and make Jean Chretien's government see the error of its ways.
The lifelong Liberal got clobbered by the Bloc.
"It's certain these announcements are going to give a good shot in the arm for the Conservatives," Deschambault said in an interview.
"The Conservatives looked pretty strong in St. Jean, but I think this will put them in the saddle. It certainly puts them back in the game.
"It's certainly putting them in a better position than they've had in years. You can see they're coming."
While much is made of Quebec opposition to the military campaign in Afghanistan, regions like Saguenay and Quebec City have tight social and economic links with the Forces.
Those regions also happen to have the biggest potential pools of Conservative vote in the next federal election.
But Benoit Bouchard, a former Conservative cabinet minister from the Saguenay region, says announcements are easily forgotten come voting day.
"This will be very well received by the Saguenay population," said Bouchard, who served under Brian Mulroney. "People here are in total harmony with Quebec and Canadian soldiers.
"But there's way less relationship than people think between an announcement and the people's vote, way less than 30 years ago. It's certainly not bad, but there are so many announcements they get lost in the blizzard. People forget."
O'Connor has protested that announcements like the college relaunch are "not a political statement."
The Tories have been on a spending spree on the defence front, adding money for recruitment and a long shopping list of new equipment, including ships and helicopters.
O'Connor described the new unit moving to Bagotville as a rapid deployment air force wing.
Capt. Jim Hutcheson, an air force spokesman, said the new wing will be a headquarters and logistical unit that will co-ordinate deployments.
Whenever the government decides to send off warplanes or surveillance aircraft, the expeditionary wing will select the right type of aircraft and squadrons for the mission, train them and then support the operation.
The function had been performed by National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa.
"We did it on a more ad-hoc basis before," said Hutcheson.
The last time Canada deployed warplanes into a conflict was during the war in Kosovo in 1999, where CF-18s flew strike missions and patrols.
The new wing may mean more overseas deployments for the air force.
"That's completely up to the government, but I think we're going to be able to conduct more such missions and it wouldn't surprise me if we were employed more," said Hutcheson.
There have been persistent rumours that the Conservative government would send CF-18s to support Canadian troops in Afghanistan, but O'Connor has denied it. He recently set aside six of the fighter-bombers for duty with NATO's quick reaction force, which is not involved in the war.
Hutcheson said the air force hopes to create at least one more air expeditionary wing somewhere else in the country.
