MONTREAL: U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama may have Matt Damon and Oprah on his side, but Liberal leader Stéphane Dion has his share of celebrity support in the lead-up to the Oct. 14 vote.

Although film and TV actors Pierre Gendron (Hommes en quartantaine) and Sébastien Dhavernas (Le temps d’une paix) are virtually unknown in English Canada, they are popular stars in Quebec. And both actors have done the unusual in a province where, when it comes to politics, creative types tend to either stay silent or support Quebec independence: they are publicly backing the Liberals.

Dhavernas – father of Passchendaele and Surviving My Mother star Caroline Dhavernas – is running as a Liberal and will try to regain the Outremont riding from NDP candidate Thomas Mulcair, who picked it up from former Liberal MP Jocelyn Coulon in a surprise by-election win last September. Mulcair is the NDP’s only Quebec MP.

And Gendron is the star attraction in a Liberal campaign ad that blasts Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s leadership qualities.

Dhavernas, who could not be reached for comment for this story, has stated publicly that he’s running because of Bill C-10 and the Conservative government’s recent cuts to culture.

Although Gendron isn’t giving interviews, his agent, Sonia Gagnon, says he participated in the television ad because of his political convictions.

‘I always advise my clients not to make political endorsements, because it can hinder their chances of getting work. But sometimes they believe strongly in something and they want to express it,’ says Gagnon.

Quebec’s creative community has been fervently sounding the alarm bell about the Harper government’s potentially negative impact on the film and television industry since the $45 million in cuts to cultural programs were announced in August. They are organizing protests, signing petitions and using every opportunity to blast the Conservative government’s record on culture.

Popular singer Michel Rivard and actor Stéphane Rousseau (Les invasions barbares) have put together a satirical YouTube video, Culture en peril (Culture in Peril), in which a Quebec singer (Rivard) sits before a government panel and tries to get funding for his work. In it the Conservative government comes across as a group of unilingual religious fundamentalists.

And at the Prix Gemeaux, Quebec’s Sept. 14 TV awards – watched by nearly 1.5 million viewers – a number of TV personalities spoke out against the federal government, including Tout le monde en parle host Guy A. Lepage, veteran talk-show host and TV writer Janette Bertrand, and actor Vincent Gratton.

Gratton, who stars in the popular soap opera L’auberge du chien noir, also traveled to the Festival Western St-Tite – which attracts nearly 500,000 people – in Quebec’s heartland earlier this month, where he warned rural voters not to vote for Harper. The Conservative Party hopes to make inroads in rural areas such as St-Tite, where voters support Quebec’s conservative nationalist party Action Démocratique du Québec, which stole a number of seats from the Parti Québécois in the last provincial election. ADQ leader Mario Dumont has endorsed Harper.

And whenever he speaks to the media, popular actor Raymond Bouchard (Seducing Doctor Lewis) has repeated the same message: ‘Don’t vote for the Conservatives.’

Filmmakers Anais Barbeau-Lavalette (Le ring) and actor and director Émile Proulx-Cloutier are producing a series of clips entitled ’30 secondes contre Harper’ (’30 Seconds Against Harper’).

While Quebec performers get lots of airtime because of this province’s thriving star culture, whether their fans will respond to their pleas is another question. Some fear that protesting too loudly may backfire.

‘The danger is that we will be perceived by people, particularly those in rural areas, like a bunch of whining celebrities who live in Montreal and already make enough money,’ said one industry insider, who asked not to be identified.