Liberals cruising to win in Orléans
The Liberals were poised to hold onto Orléans on Monday as early returns put francophone champion Marie-France Lalonde well ahead in the east-end suburb.
After only six polls, Lalonde was already 250 votes ahead of Conservative David Bertschi, with well over 55 per cent of the vote among five candidates. A victory means Lalonde, 48, would make the successful leap from provincial politics, where she has been the MPP for Orléans since 2014.
At press time, about 50 of her supporters were watching results at Occo Kitchen on Innes Road — including city councillor Stephen Blais — who is hoping to win Lalonde’s vacated provincial seat.
Several dozens Bertschi supporters were filling Connors Irish Pub on St. Joseph Boulevard, but the atmosphere was nearly as blue as the balloons. It was a race in which Bertschi was possibly hampered by his own political baggage and the notion that he was so keen to be elected that he switched political parties. He was also fighting history in a campaign that lacked a galvanizing local issue and had no incumbent’s record to attack. (Except for the nine years of the Harper era, the riding has been solidly Liberal since its creation in 1987.)
A bilingual lawyer, Bertschi had been a lifelong Liberal and, in the 2011 election, came a solid second to Conservative winner Royal Galipeau, losing by fewer than 4,000 votes. After a withdrawn bid for the national leadership of the Liberal party in 2013, Bertschi sought the nomination again for the 2015 general election. But he was barred from running because of unpaid leadership debts — a decision he fought, a lawsuit he eventually settled — and the banner was given to retired general Andrew Leslie, viewed as a star candidate.
Leslie easily won in 2015, taking 60 per cent of the vote and defeating Galipeau by roughly 23,000 votes. So Lalonde had a huge plurality going into Monday’s vote.
When the ex-military man made the surprising decision not to run again, the race was on to find a high-profile replacement. But even that didn’t go smoothly.
The meeting to elect Lalonde was not held until Sept. 19, barely a month before the general election and after the writ had been dropped. And the meeting itself was marred by accusations the voting was rigged in favour of Lalonde.
Throughout the campaign, Lalonde, a former social worker, stressed her political experience and solid record as a defender of francophone rights.
First elected to Queen’s Park in 2014, she held a number of ministerial portfolios (Community Safety and Correctional Services, Consumer Services) and was also minister of Francophone Affairs. She was deeply involved in the effort to create Ontario’s first fullfledged French-language university. Her provincial career left her well-placed to attack the government of Premier Doug Ford, and to exploit francophone themes, like Ford’s awkward attempt to downgrade French-language services early in his mandate. She ran on a campaign of continued government support for families and seniors and the Liberal record on job creation. She pointed to the new Amazon warehouse in the east end, which will create at least 600 jobs and the eventual extension of LRT to Orléans.
Bertschi, meanwhile, stressed tax and affordability issues and pointed out that successive MPs have had little luck in luring large-scale federal employment to Orléans.
NDP candidate Jacqueline Wiens held down third spot while Green Party nominee Michelle Petersen was fourth. People’s Party of Canada candidate Roger SaintFleur was fifth.