How the CAQ broke through Fortress Montreal’s eastern flank
Two ridings got aboard the bandwagon while the rest of the island resisted
The east-end Mercier district is a long way from the tree-lined streets of west-end Montreal and the bright lights of Ste-Catherine St.
Giant storage cylinders for crude oil dominate the landscape, crisscrossed by busy highways and boulevards.
On Monday, voters in Bourget and neighbouring Pointe-auxTrembles ridings were the landing points for the Coalition Avenir Québec’s siege of Fortress Montreal.
The CAQ swept rural Quebec and the outer suburbs known as la couronne.
But on the Island of Montreal, the Liberals and Québec solidaire stopped the victorious party’s advance. While voter turnout hit historic lows in traditional Liberal ridings, those voters who did show up stayed loyal.
It was the same story in five out of Laval’s six ridings, with the exception of Sainte-Rose, won by Christopher Skeete of the CAQ.
But in Pointe-aux-Trembles, it was a landslide for the CAQ’s Chantal Rouleau, the mayor of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-auxTrembles borough and a probable cabinet pick.
In neighbouring Bourget, Richard Campeau of the CAQ, a chemical engineer, beat incumbent Parti Québécois MNA and former culture minister Maka Kotto by 500 votes.
Why did voters here jump onto the CAQ bandwagon while the rest of Montreal resisted the wave?
“It’s quite a poor neighbourhood,” said Benoît Goyette, 43, a lab technician in a flour mill in the Port of Montreal who voted for the CAQ.
“The cutbacks in the first three years of the Liberals’ mandate created irreversible damage,” he said in an interview in a strip mall near Honoré-Beaugrand métro station.
“I think there’s still some bitterness,” said Goyette, who was undecided on how to vote until the last minute.
Philippe Couillard’s Liberals boasted about their economic record during the campaign, pointing to record low unemployment and renewed investment. But many people in Bourget, which includes the former villages of Tétraultville, Beaurivage and Longue-Pointe, aren’t sharing in that prosperity, Goyette said.
“It’s all very well to give out presents (during the campaign) but (the budget cuts) left scars in people’s hearts,” he said.
Benoît Gagné, 28, who is studying to become a machinist, said he didn’t bother to vote because he feels disillusioned by politics. The former PQ voter said he hopes to change careers after losing his previous job laying ceramic tiles.
Francine, 62, a retired bank employee who declined to give her full name, said she voted for the PQ.
“It’s never been Liberal around here,” she said.
“In my opinion, it’s because it’s very francophone,” she said when asked why the CAQ made a breakthrough in the two east-end ridings.
“People absolutely wanted a change,” she added.
Francine said now people should give Legault the chance to prove himself. “Maybe he’ll do some good,” she said.
But Amina Dai, 45, said she was appalled by Legault’s proposals to cut immigration and force newcomers to pass tests on French proficiency and Quebec values within three years.
“It revolts me, honestly,” she said. Dai said she used to vote Liberal but switched to the PQ after losing her temporary job in human resources for the Quebec government as a result of budget cuts under the Liberals.
Dai immigrated to Canada 25 years ago from Guinea. With two bachelor’s degrees, she has been trying to land a permanent government job for years. In the meantime, she works in a clothing boutique, a job she has held for 12 years.
“You just can’t break in. Access is closed,” she said.