"Duceppe has a legitimate grievance with that." The candidate run in Duceppe's riding was most certainly not a ballot filler. Helene Laverdiere is an excellent candidate. And I dunno. It seems mostly like it's Duceppe's fault that his party was routed. The NDP is allowed to run whomsoever it likes (and whomsoever is willing to run for them), and if people vote for them, it doesn't seem like Duceppe can do anything about it. It's not like they had a choice between a good, highly experienced politician and a communist karate instructor, and chose the communist anyway. They were making due with what they had. And to be fair, Harper should have a grievance with that too. The communist guy unseated the Foreign Affairs Minister, Lawrence Cannon.
The thing is that for decades people have been refusing to take the NDP seriously, and so refusing to give them the resources and tools necessary to win. And now that they've become a force to be reckoned with overnight, some of their political machine is a little slapped together, and people are saying "They shouldn't be in parliament! They're too ramshackle!" While at the same time refusing to acknowledge that clearly something about the NDP resonated strongly with a large portion of voters, despite, or perhaps even BECAUSE of the fact that in parts of Quebec they ran younger candidates with more community involvement than federal or provincial political experience.