Local candidates step forward
This was a busy weekend in the local pre-election campaign, with three candidates for two major parties being either invested or announced in three different local ridings. On Friday, the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) announced that entrepreneur Geneviève Hébert will be the party’s candidate in the Saint-francois riding. On Saturday current Families Minister Luc Fortin was confirmed as the Quebec Liberal Party’s (PLQ) candidate for Sherbrooke and On Sunday, the Liberal Party in the Orford Riding confirmed Guy Madore to be their candidate of choice this coming October.
CAQ Leader Francois Legault was back in Sherbrooke on Friday for Hébert’s announcement following a similar visit for the party’s candidate in the Richmond riding, André Bachand, in mid-march.
Hébert has owned and operated the boutique Mère Poule on King Street East in Sherbrooke for the last fourteen years. She is being touted by the party as a family-oriented woman with a strong sense of community.
I welcomed residents of the region into my store for 14 years and had the pleasure of seeing their families grow,” the candidate said. “These are people who have shown me that everything is possible when we work together to move things forward.”
Hébert recalled her implication with the effort to revitalize King Street as an example of her community commitment and said that healthcare, education, and the agricultural sector are at the heart of her commitments. Speaking to those concerns specifically, she said that the recent change in parking systems at the local hospitals has been unacceptable, and that the Saint-francois
riding is home to many farms in need of support.
Legault has committed to putting together a strong team in the Eastern Townships for the coming election in order to upset the balance of power in what has long been considered a Liberal stronghold in favour of the CAQ.
On the side of the PLQ, Luc Fortin had the support of a large crowd at his investiture on Saturday. First elected in 2014, beating out the Parti-quebecois’ Serge Cardin, Fortin has since occupied several different ministerial positions.
Fortin is the only local liberal to run for reelection, with fellow MNAS Guy Hardy, Karine Vallières, Pierre Reid, and Ghislain Bolduc all having announced that they will be retiring from politics on either a temporary or full-time basis to spend more time with family. In his announcement, Reid pointed to Fortin as an example for others to follow in terms of achieving a healthy work-life balance. Although the father of three had to step back in the spring of 2016 due to professional burnout, he has since assumed the role of families’ minister and established clearer boundaries between his personal and professional life.
The Liberal riding association in Orford chose real estate agent Guy Madore as Reid’s successor on Sunday morning, making him the first official new candidate in the ridings currently held by the Liberal party in the area. Sherbrooke city councilor Annie Godbout and former Coaticook councilor Charles Poulin have declared their intent to run for the Liberal party in the Richmond and Saint-francois ridings respectively, although the investitures for those areas are not set to take place until later this spring.
The next provincial election is scheduled to take place on October 1.