Liberal support slips on West Island, but party still wins a clean sweep

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Although the Quebec Liberal Party seems to have lost some popularity in the West Island and in other parts of the western end of the Island of Montreal, they still seem to be on their way to winning by comfortable margins.

At the Jacques-Cartier Equestrian, a liberal stronghold for decades, Gregory Kelley, the current MNA, was declared one of the first candidates to win an Equestrian on the Island of Montreal.

“I am very grateful to my constituents for giving me a second term. I look forward to bringing your concerns to the National Assembly over the next four years,” Kelley wrote in a statement to The Montreal Gazette. With the first results, Kelley has more than 62 percent of the votes. He represents a likely easy win, but the Liberals seem to have lost popularity in the equities they have long considered strongholds. In 2018, Kelley won with nearly 72 percent of the vote.

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The walk covers the southwestern tip of the island of Montreal and includes the townships of Pointe-Claire, Beaconsfield, Baie-D’Urfé, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, and Senneville.

Voter turnout also appeared to be low in the five constituencies in the western part of the island.

Louis-Charles Fortier, the Quebec Conservative Party candidate, gained popularity in the 2018 election and is in a tight battle for second place in Jacques-Cartier with Rébecca Guénard-Chouinard, the Coalition Avenir Québec candidate. With the first results, Fortier has 11 percent of the votes and is in second place.

“When I was going through the polling stations, voter turnout was not very high,” Fortier said. “People didn’t feel like they wanted a change. They did not want to change representation.

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“I was listening very differently at first. People wanted a change. They wanted the Liberals out. I don’t know what changed from what people originally said. That’s part of why we’ll have a report on what happened. Why didn’t people come out (and vote)? What turned them off?

With more than a third of the vote counted in the Nelligan riding, Monsef Derraji, the incumbent candidate and Liberal MNA, appears on track to retain the seat he won in 2018 with two-thirds of the vote. This time, he looks like he will win with just over 50 percent of the vote.

Riding includes Kirkland and part of the Île-Bizard—Sainte-Geneviève and Pierrefonds-Roxboro districts. During his first term as a member of the MNA, Derraji served as deputy leader of the official opposition and was appointed critic of the party’s health and social services in January, a role that raised his profile while, as an official opposition, Liberals questioned the governance of the CAQ. of COVID-19.

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In this election, the CQA’s candidate in Nelligan’s riding is Cynthia Lapierre, the CQA government’s whip press attaché in the National Assembly. She is in second place with 17 percent of the vote.

At Robert-Baldwin’s riding, Brigitte Garceau, an attorney who has practiced family law for 30 years, won her first seat as an MNA on the same day she earned a prestigious honor from the Quebec Bar. Just before the polls opened, she was named, along with seven other lawyers and a judge, as the bar’s emeritus jurists for 2022.

“I think October 3 will be a day I will remember for a long time,” said Garceau, who replaces former Finance Minister Carlos Leitão as MNA for the ride that includes Dollard-des-Ormeaux and part of the Pierrefonds-Roxboro district.

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Garceau is also a member of the West Island Women’s Shelter.

In 2018, Leitão won Robert-Baldwin’s seat for the Liberals with 74 percent of the vote and, with results due Monday, Garceau won 57 percent of the vote.

“We have worked very hard since my nomination and I am very happy with the work we did together. All I can say is that it’s a good win for Robert Baldwin.”

Garceau said he’s not surprised to hear voter turnout seemed low on West Island.

“It is not a surprise when you meet people every day and attend many events, of course you are discussing many topics. And we all know a lot of people were frustrated and angry in terms of House Bill 96 in particular,” he said. “There has been a lot of Legault government and divisive politics and some very negative commentary and narrative on immigration. As a lawyer and community activist, I can tell you that I will be a very strong voice for minority and cultural communities.”

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In the Marquette circuit, made up of Dorval and part of Lachine Township, Liberal MNA incumbent Enrico Ciccone appeared headed for a win with more than 90 percent of the votes tabulated. While website Qc125.com projected Marquette to be somewhat close, Ciccone has 47 per cent of the vote, a slight improvement from 2018, and Marc Baaklini is a distant second on just 21 per cent.

Ciccone’s election campaign got off to an unlucky start when his riding office was broken into and his computers were stolen. A homeless man with a drug problem has been charged with the robbery and, so far, it appears that the motive for the crime was not political sabotage.

With almost half of the votes counted in the Saint-Laurent riding, which includes the municipality of the same name and part of the municipality of Ahuntsic-Cartiervile, the current MNA, Liberal candidate Marwah Rizqy, also seems headed for a clear victory.

Rizqy has more than 50 percent of the vote and the CAQ and the Conservative candidates have about 14 percent each.

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