Beaconsfield resident tackles Liberals in Outremont

BY RAFFY BOUDJIKANIAN

raffy.boudjikanian@transcontinental.ca

It stood as a bastion for the federal Liberals for over half a century with a brief exception in 1988.

The Bloc Québécois usually wound up second, the riding's francophone community giving it a big push.

But on Sept. 17, 2007, the last party anyone would expect to storm a Grit stronghold in Quebec leapt straight to victory, with nearly double the votes of Canada's former governing party.

"We're not that surprised," said Thomas Mulcair, who sits as MP for Outremont with the New Democratic Party. "People in that riding were tired of being taken for granted by the Liberals," he said.

"If I had run for the Green Party, I would not have won in Outremont," Mulcair said, adding he acknowledges that being a known quantity was helpful to secure his victory. He said that it belonged as much to the NDP as it did to him.

According to John Abbott College political science professor James Leeke, a significant chunk of the usual Bloc vote went to the NDP in Outremont, allowing it pull into first place. "(Mulcair) is a very hard worker," Leeke also said.

Mulcair, a longtime resident of Beaconsfield and former provincial Liberal Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks, said this was just the beginning for his new party in Quebec.

"We are going to win between six and 12 seats in Quebec," he said, adding that he expects the West Island candidates for the NDP will put up a fierce fight come next election. In Lac St. Louis riding, represented by Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia since 2004, the NDP's candidate will again be Daniel Quinn. As for the Pierrefonds-Dollard riding, Mulcair could not say who would be running for the NDP yet, but he promised it was "a well-known West Islander."

However, Leeke suggested that predicting general election outcomes based on successful byelections was a precarious endeavour. "I think Tom's going to have to work pretty hard to hold on to his own seat," he said.

Despite a traditionally overwhelmingly Liberal-voting population, Mulcair said that West Islanders are ready for change. "The area has a history of following its own beat," he said, pointing out that Conservative MP Gerry Wiener won in Pierrefonds-Dollard in 1984.

"That's quite a leap," Leeke said. "Anything is possible," he said, but he reminded that the Liberal MPs in the West Island have a good reputation among their constituencies, so it would be hard to dislodge them as long as they kept it up.

Mulcair has been living in Beaconsfield for the last 25 years. He praised the West Island, calling it a "great place to raise kids." He said he and his wife might move closer to his new Outremont riding once their second son leaves home.

In 2006, Quinn had come in third in Lac St. Louis, though his 10.7 per cent share of the votes was dwarfed by Scarpaleggia's 48.2 per cent. In Pierrefonds-Dollard, the NDP had finished in fourth place with 7.7 per cent, pulling ahead only of the Green Party and the Marxist-Leninist Party.