MONTREAL - There are more signs this week that Quebec Premier Jean Charest might pull the trigger on an election before the summer is out.

His top minister has told a Paris newspaper that Quebecers will be going to the polls by the fall.

A new attack ad against Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois highlights the ties between his separatist opponent and the student movement.

And the premier himself said Tuesday that he'll be visiting "every corner of Quebec" for his summer vacation.

But it's the often-violent student strike, a crisis at least as intractable as the five years of corruption allegations, that might force Charest to put his nine-year-old government on the line by Labour Day.

Talks with student groups have broken down and while just 50 people showed up for nightly Montreal protests on Tuesday evening, it's threatening to heat up again in August.

That's when the college and university semester will resume after Charest postponed it in May to ease pressure on 25 schools that had been hit by daily blockades.

His special law targeted students groups but sparked a wider anti-Liberal movement that includes unions and the artistic community.

Charest, one of Canada's longest-serving and wiliest political leaders, it trying to turn the crisis to his advantage.

He took out an ad that shows Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois banging on pots during a student protest.

She recently stopped wearing the red square that's emblematic of the four-month strike by 300,000 students.
The premier doesn't have to call an election until the end of 2013 and had refused to tip his hand - until this week.

Visiting Quebec City on Tuesday, Charest said he would take summer vacation with his family, but he suggested the break might be cut short.

"After that, we will have the opportunity to visit the regions of Quebec, all of Quebec," he said, cracking a smile.