Quebec Liberals have held Vaudreuil through nine elections, dating back to 1989.
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The Coalition Avenir de Québec is looking to build on its stronghold in the “450” region that rings Montreal in Monday’s 2022 provincial election.
The CAQ won 24 of 33 seats up for grabs in the 450 region in the 2018 election, while the Liberals, then under leader Philippe Couillard, took eight. The Parti Québécois had one seat.
The CAQ was looking to cut into the Liberals’ total in the Vaudreuil riding west of Montreal, where polls showed CAQ candidate Eve Bélec was poised to upset Liberal incumbent Marie-Claire Nichols.
The Quebec Liberals have held the seat through nine elections, dating back to 1989 when the riding was recreated from the old Vaudreuil-Soulanges riding. Former Quebec premier Daniel Johnson Jr. held the seat from 1989 to 1998, followed by Yvon Marcoux from 1998 to 2014.
Nichols, a 48-year-old family lawyer, was first elected as the Liberal MNA in 2014.
She easily won the 2014 election with 61 per cent of the vote, finishing well ahead of runner-up Marcos Archambault of the PQ at 16 per cent. But in the 2018 election, the CAQ closed the gap. Nichols won with 39.92 per cent of votes, while the CAQ’s Claude Bourbonnais collected 32.63 per cent.
But in the final week of this 2022 campaign, the polling aggregate site Qc125.com showed Bélec holding a six-per-cent lead over Nichols.
Bélec, executive director of Carrefour Jeunesse-Emploi de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, was at 36 per cent, Nichols at 30 per cent.
Ève Théoret of the Conservative Party of Quebec was next at 12 per cent followed by Cynthia Bilodeau of Quebéc solidaire at 10 per cent. Christopher Massé of the Parti Québécois was at nine per cent.
Other candidates included Andreas Pollmueller of the Quebec Green Party, David Hamelin-Schuilenburg of the Canadian Party of Quebec, Jaspal Singh Ahluwalia of Bloc Montréal and Paul Lynes of Démocratie Directe.
The Vaudreuil riding is comprised of seven off-island municipalities: Vaudreuil-Dorion, Île-Perrot, Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Pincourt, Terrasse-Vaudreuil, Vaudreuil-sur-le-Lac and Île-Cadieux.
Nichols previously served as mayor of Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot from 2009 to 2014. She was also the prefect for the MRC Vaudreuil-Soulanges, a political body that represents 23 municipalities in the area. She said the key concerns of constituents this election have focused on the future Vaudreuil-Soulanges Hospital and public transport.
“When I was going door-to-door, it’s almost always the (same) subject. People are all talking about the new hospital and they’re also talking about public transport. They’re worried about how they can (commute) around the riding. And also that going to Montreal (on public transport) is so complicated.”
Nichols said there are also concerns about plans for a new Île-aux-Tourtes Bridge linking the West Island with Vaudreuil-Dorion.
The new bridge, like the current span, will have three lanes in each direction. It will also have a bicycle and pedestrian path and a wide shoulder lane on each side, but there will be no lane reserved for buses or public transit on the new bridge.
“The problem here in Vaudreuil is that the REM is going to stop in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue,” she said.
“When the Liberal party was (in power), we did the design for the new bridge and there were two lanes for public transport. But after the CAQ was elected, they put all that aside and they designed a new bridge without those lanes for public transport. So this is one of my big worries.”
The CAQ’s Eve Bélec did not respond to an interview request.
Nichols said residents of the fast-growing Vaudreuil-Soulanges area are also anxious for the new $1.7-billion hospital, which will be located on de la Cité-des-Jeunes Blvd. in Vaudreuil-Dorion.
She said many local residents now travel to Hawkesbury General Hospital in Ontario for health care.
“People want to know when the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Hospital is coming, but it’s under construction now. It’s not like building a house … it takes almost 10 years to build a hospital. We’ll cut the ribbon in 2026.”
Elsewhere, Marilyne Picard of the CAQ was expected to be re-elected in Soulanges riding.
Prior to election day, she was polling at 44 per cent, well ahead of Liberal Catherine St-Amour, who was at 23 per cent, according to the Qc125.com.
Conservative candidate Éloïse Coulombe was next at 14.
In Huntingdon riding, the CAQ’s Carole Mallette was polling at 38 per cent prior to the election.
Liberal candidate Jean-Claude Poissant was next at 22 per cent. Conservative candidate François Gagnon was third at 18 per cent.
In Beauharnois riding, CAQ incumbent Claude Reid is expected to easily recapture his seat. According to the Qc125.com, Reid was polling at nearly 50 per cent during the final week of the campaign. None of the other candidates were even close.
Claudine Desforges of the Parti Québécois was next best at 16.5 per cent, followed by Conservative candidate Chantal Dauphinais at 15 per cent. Émilie Poirier of Québec solidaire was at 13 per cent, followed by Liberal candidate Marc Blanchard at six per cent.
jmeagher@postmedia.com