GREATER MONTREAL AREA
SAINT-MARIE-SAINT-JACQUES: The downtown riding which includes the Village, is high on the list of captures for Québec solidaire. After winning in 2012 in the Plateau ridings of Mercier and Gouin, the party hopes to bring down PQ MNA Daniel Breton. The QS candidate is Manon Massé, a 30-year-veteran community worker and a fixture on the Montreal electoral scene running for the fifth time. She placed third in a by-election in 2006, lost in general elections in 2007 and 2008. In 2012, she placed second to Breton who won by about 3,000 votes. QS insiders are also talking about possible wins in Laurier-Dorion and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
VERDUN: Longtime Liberal MNA HenriFrançois Gautrin squeaked by in 2012 by 547 votes. But after 25 years representing the riding he retired, leaving the PQ to believe a sea change is possible. The PQ is running well-known actress and theatre producer Lorraine Pintal. The Liberals are banking on Jacques Daoust, a businessman and former president of Investissement Québec.
CRéMAZIE: A rare swing riding on the island, the Liberals are hoping discontent with the proposed charter of values among minority communities here gets the better of PQ MNA and language minister Diane De Courcy.
L’ASSOMPTION: Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault barely won this riding — which includes his hometown of Saint-Anne-de-Bellevue — in 2012 by 1,000 votes. If the number of times he has visited it is an indication, and it usually is, he’s in a fight to hold it. The PQ has targeted the riding and is running a high profile former Bloc Québécois MP, Pierre Paquette, against Legault. If the CAQ vote collapses across the province, Legault could be in trouble.
LA PINIèRE: Home for the last 20 years to Liberal Fatima Houda-Pepin, the only Muslim woman in the National Assembly, the battle for the South Shore riding has been bitter. Houda-Pepin left the Liberal caucus — she says she was thrown out — in a dispute with leader Philippe Couillard over the charter of values. HoudaPepin announced she would run as an independent. The Liberals retaliated by announcing high profile former medical specialist’s federation president, Gaétan Barrette, would be parachuted in to keep riding Liberal. The PQ announced it would not run any candidate at all.
SAINT-JéRôME: This is first on the PQ list of ridings it thinks it can win. It was won by CAQ candidate Jacques Duchesneau in 2012 by a mere 900 votes, despite his star status. The PQ this time has its own star running, media mogul Pierre Karl Péladeau.
GROULX: Another CAQ riding up for grabs in the minds of the PQ. The incumbent CAQ MNA Hélène Daneault retired, opening, in theory, the door to former student leader Martine Desjardins. The PQ caravan has paid special attention to the riding.
LA PRAIRIE: CAQ MNA Stéphane Le Bouyonnec won here in 2012 by 75 votes, making it a target for the PQ and Liberals in the campaign.
MONTARVILLE: Another suburban Montreal riding that went CAQ in 2012 but both the PQ and Liberals are chasing. The CAQ MNA is Nathalie Roy.