Montrealers, along with the rest of the country, got a midday jolt Friday as Stephen Harper's Conservative minority government was brought down by the three opposition parties in a non-confidence vote.

That means for the fourth time in seven years, Canadians will be heading back to the polls in May.

And by and large, it appears the city's voters were not very pleased with the news.

"I think it's ridiculous," Gisele White told CTV Montreal's Tarah Schwartz in a response representative of many she gathered on the streets of the city Friday.

"I just wish they are able to do their jobs and move ahead with some projects instead of going back to the polls every time," White continued. "It's costing us millions of dollars every time we do that."

Several people feared Canada is going through a $300 million exercise in democracy only to come out of it with the same result, a minority Conservative government.

Conservatives targeting Liberal strongholds

But here in Montreal, at least, that may very well be an interesting battle.

The Conservatives are eyeing some traditional Liberal strongholds in the city as their entry points to Montreal, where they currently hold no seats.

One of them is the West Island riding of Lac Saint Louis, where former Alouettes president Larry Smith is running for the Conservatives against Liberal incumbent Francis Scarpaleggia, who won the riding in a landslide by more than 11,000 votes in 2008.

It was Scarpaleggia's third straight election victory in the riding, however with each victory his level of support has dropped, from 63.9 per cent in 2004 to 48.2 per cent in 2006 to 46.4 per cent in 2008.

The Conservatives unveiled yet another star candidate in a coveted Liberal riding on Friday with the announcement that longtime municipal councilor Saulie Zajdel would faceoff with incumbent Irwin Cotler in Mount-Royal.

The Conservatives are hoping their staunch support of Israel will help the party's fortunes in a riding that has a very strong number of Jewish voters, 36.3 per cent according to 2001 census data, higher than any other religious group in the riding.

However, riding Tory organizer Moise Mughrabi told CTV Montreal's Caroline Van Vlaardingen this week that the Jewish vote in Mount Royal cannot be won based solely on Canada's support of Israel.

"They don't vote on one issue alone, they're going to look at economy, they're going to look at a lot of things," he said. "A lot of them were liberal supporters. But it's mostly about the economy, it's not about foreign affairs."

The Mount-Royal riding has voted Liberal in 22 straight elections dating back to 1940, when Conservative William Walsh was defeated by Liberal Frederick Whitman.

But, like Scarpaleggia, Cotler has seen his level of support fall in every one of his four federal election victories, from a staggering 81.2 per cent support in 2000 down to 55.6 per cent in 2008. Meanwhile, the Conservatives have gone from 8.6 per cent support in 2004 to 27.3 per cent in 2008.

Charest wants to hear federal parties ideas on Champlain Bridge

Meanwhile, Quebec Premier Jean Charest waded into the fray Friday and said an election is a good opportunity for two issues that are important for the province to come to the fore.

Charest has made it clear he wants $2.2 billion in compensation for the province harmonizing its sales tax, and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe said the lack of such a payment in the last federal budget was a major reason his party didn't support it.

The other would be the need to replace the Champlain Bridge in light of two federally commissioned reports stating that the bridge is heading quickly towards a collapse.

Charest said he believes the bridge is safe, but his government feels it is obvious the bridge needs to be replaced and not simply repaired.

Having an election is a good opportunity to hear each of the four major parties talk about what their plans for the bridge would be, he said.

"We'd very much like to hear the political parties speak to what their plans are in regards to the future of this bridge, including a collective transport project integrated into the buidling of a new bridge, which we believe is absolutely essential for the south shore of Quebec," Charest said Friday.

Social media to the rescue?

But even with these important campaign issues in play and the potential for some new battles in ridings that were once considered foregone conclusions, voter interest looks as though it may hit new lows.

One way a lot of politicians have been trying to reach that elusive youth vote is through social media, and more specifically through the micro-blogging site Twitter.

This will be the first federal election of the Twitter era, where politicians are able to reach voters in real time through concise messages that are not passing through a media filter.

All of the party leaders have accounts as do many of the candidates, but CTV Montreal's tech expert and Concordia University new media instructor Elias Makos feels that if candidates are only jumping on the Twitter bandwagon now, it may be too late.

"If you're going to join Twitter today, so close before an election, you're not going to get those followers," Makos told CTV Montreal's Stephane Giroux. "So it's a waste of time."

But for those who already have a strong Twitter presence, such as Montreal Liberal MPs Denis Coderre (more than 12,600 followers) and Justin Trudeau (more than 57,000 followers), it can be a valuable tool as long as it is used properly.

"The biggest mistake I see politicians doing is using Twitter as just a repeater for talking points, it's kind of empty," Makos said. "You want to connect with voters in your riding. So I think it's one key thing most politicians on twitter fail at."

We'll see if the Twitter revolution succeeds in attracting voters at a time when most have very little interest in an election at all.