Tight race for familiar rivals

At press time late Monday, the Liberal and Conservative candidates were neck and neck in the riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell.

The race is between old rivals, Liberal incumbent Francis Drouin and former Conservative member of Parliament Pierre Lemieux.

As of 10:45 p.m. with 45 of 271 polls reporting, Lemieux had 43.7 per cent of the vote, while Drouin had 39.8 per cent.

The riding has been a Liberal territory for most of its history, although it swung Conservative from 2006 until 2015.

This fall, two party loyalists squared off. Drouin is a 36-yearold longtime Liberal who joined the party at 17 years old and served as president of the Young Liberals for a few years. He also worked for former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and ran a couple of campaigns before being elected in 2015.

The 56-year-old Lemieux was first elected to the House of Commons in 2006, ending a 44-year Liberal reign when he won the seat by just 203 votes.

In the two subsequent elections, he built on that margin considerably, winning by more than 5,000 votes in 2008 and more than 10,000 in 2011. He has thrice served as a parliamentary secretary, for Official Languages, Veterans Affairs, and Agriculture and Agri-Food.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford looked like he was going to play a big factor in the riding as rookie Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament Amanda Simard resigned from the party over French-language service cuts.

At press time, NDP candidate Konstantine Malakos had 10.1 per cent, Green party candidate Marthe Lépine had 3.2 per cent and People’s Party candidate Jean-Jacques Desgranges had 1.9 per cent.