Candidates line up for Oct. 1 elections
Will West Island and Off-Island voters opt for status quo or seek change in leadership
According to various public opinion polls, the West Island area ridings are expected to remain in the Liberal fold.
It’s official. The final list of candidates for the Quebec elections has been posted as of Saturday.
West Island and Off-Island voters have a combined total of 51 candidates representing at least seven and up to 10 political parties per riding. A couple of local ridings have an independent candidate on the ballot.
The four main parties, as represented in the historic televised English-language leaders debate on Monday, are running in the four West Island and two OffIsland ridings. Each of these six ridings also has Conservative, Green Party and NDP candidates. (The Quebec Conservative and NDP parties are not affiliated with their better-known federal counterparts.)
The fledgling Citoyens au pouvoir du Québec party has candidates in Jacques-Cartier (Pointe-Claire west to Senneville) and the two Off-Island ridings.
A candidate representing the Équipe Autonomiste party is running in Soulanges, which includes Hudson and St-Lazare.
Despite Ottawa’s plan to legalize recreational use of cannabis as of next month, the Bloc Pot has registered candidates in both Soulanges and Vaudreuil (ÎlePerrot and Vaudreuil-Dorion areas). Although there is ample choice of candidates, the four West Island ridings of JacquesCartier, Marquette, Nelligan and Robert-Baldwin (Dollard-desOrmeaux area), have been Liberal strongholds for some time. Even the two Off-Island ridings of Vaudreuil and Soulanges have Liberal incumbents seeking reelection.
The Quebec Liberals have held the Jacques-Cartier riding for most of the past 75 years, with exception of the one term the Equality Party won in 1989 over a language flap. This election, the Liberal Party is transitioning from Geoffrey Kelley, who’s retiring after serving 24 years as a MNA, to his son Gregory Kelley, who was anointed to carry the Liberal banner.
There will also be new MNAs elected in Marquette and Nelligan (Kirkland and Pierrefonds areas).
The Liberals pushed out veteran MNA François Ouimet and parachuted in Enrico Ciccone as their replacement candidate in Marquette (Dorval and Lachine).
Liberal cabinet member Martin Coiteux announced he would not seek re-election after a single term as MNA. The Liberal nomination in Nelligan is Monsef Derraji.
According to various public opinion polls, the West Island area ridings are expected to remain in the Liberal fold. So far, it seems there is a chance of the Coalition Avenir Québec forming a majority government based mainly on it’s the first-past-the-post results in the regions outside of Montreal. CAQ Leader François Legault is a Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue native and former Parti Québécois cabinet member who left to launch his own party.
Of course, the only poll that ultimately matters comes election day, Oct. 1 (well, that and the advance poll this weekend).
Will West Island and Off-Island voters opt for the status quo in terms of electing Liberal MNAs or will they vote for a change in leadership?
West Islanders elected Liberal MPs in 2015, but in 2011 voters in Pierrefonds-Dollard and Vaudreuil-Soulanges elected NDP MPs as part of Jack Layton’s orange wave.
We shall see who represents West Islanders and Off-Islanders in the National Assembly as part of a new mandate.