Liberal Bendayan unseats NDP
MONTREAL— The NDP era in Outremont came to a close Monday as voters in this diverse urban riding returned to their long-standing tradition of electing Liberals to the House of Commons. Months after former NDP leader Tom Mulcair resigned the seat he held for 11 years, residents of this central swath of Quebec’s biggest city were on track to be represented again by a Liberal, according to late night results from Elections Canada.
Rachel Bendayan, a lawyer who ran as the “Team Trudeau” candidate here, thanked her family and campaign supporters in a victory speech at a Mile End lounge late Monday night, when results showed she won more than 40 per cent of votes with more than half of polling stations counted.
“This victory wouldn’t be possible without you,” she said in French. “Today our voices were heard,” she said, stating that voters “spoke loud and proud in favour of Liberal values.”
The stage was set for a battle of deep roots versus recent, symbolic history.
Outremont is home to some 100,000 Montrealers in a riding that comprises the Côtes-desNeiges neighbourhood, part of Mile End and portions of downtown Montreal near the centre of the island where the city is located.
But while the riding was a Liberal stronghold for most of the 20th century, its more recent history has made it significant for New Democrats as well. Outremont became the party’s symbolic toehold in Quebec, when Mulcair won a 2007 byelection and successfully defended the seat the following year, marking the first time the NDP ever won a riding in the province in a general election.
Three years later, the “orange wave” surge of support in the province lifted the NDP to its best election result ever.
Now that Mulcair is retired from political life — almost three years after he was turfed as leader following the party’s 2015 election defeat — local NDP candidate Julia Sanchez hoped to maintain the party’s grip in this diverse central Montreal riding. Polls in the province suggested her main foe in the byelection was Bendayan.
A few hours before the polls closed Monday evening, Sanchez canvassed voters at a local metro station, and introduced herself to people in cafes and shops in the riding.
“I got into this race because of how hugely important it is — Outremont — for the NDP,” she said. “All of that made it super exciting and important to me ... It’s not just any byelection.”
David Coletto, chief executive officer of Abacus Data, said Monday’s result could be a bellwether for the province.