Liberals retain strongholds in central and western Montreal

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Central and western Montreal have long been provincial Liberal strongholds, and the trend continued on Monday.

Liberal candidates were elected to the National Assembly in the ridings of D’Arcy McGee, Marguerite-Bourgeoys, Mont-Royal—Outremont, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Verdun and Westmount—Saint-Louis.

But in Verdun, it was a nail-biter as Liberal incumbent Isabelle Melançon and Alejandra Zaga Mendez of Québec solidaire remained within 200 votes of one another as results came in during the evening. Verdun has voted Liberal provincially since the Second World War and polling aggregator Qc125.com had projected a Liberal victory with 37 per cent of the vote, 33 per cent for the QS and 31 per cent for Véronique Tremblay of the Coalition Avenir Québec.

With 93.2 per cent of polls counted, Melançon had 29.97 per cent of the vote, or 8,267 votes to Zaga Mendez’s 29.61 per cent of the vote, or 8,168 votes.

Melançon was elected to the National Assembly in a 2016 by-election and won the riding in the 2018 provincial election with 35.5 per cent of the vote; the QS candidate was second with 24 per cent of the vote, the CAQ third with 20 per cent.

Fully half of Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade’s 27-member caucus chose not to seek re-election and several of the Montreal candidates were running for the first time. Among them was Michelle Setlakwe in Mont-Royal–Outremont. The lawyer and former Town of Mont Royal municipal councillor and mayoralty candidate won the seat vacated by Pierre Arcand, who had been the MNA for the riding since 2008 and held several cabinet posts under former premiers Philippe Couillard and Jean Charest. With 90.9 per cent of polls counted, Setlakwe got 10,094 votes, or 39.8 per cent of the vote. Isabelle Leblanc of the QS was second with 4,842 votes, or 19.1 per cent.

In the riding of D’Arcy McGee, Liberal candidate Elisabeth Prass filled the seat vacated by David Birnbaum, whose riding office she ran. Birnbaum announced in April that he wanted to return to other interests after serving two terms in the National Assembly. Before entering politics, he was executive director of the Quebec English School Boards Association.

The D’Arcy McGee riding includes the cities of Côte-Saint-Luc and Hampstead and part of the City of Montreal’s borough of Côte-des-Neige—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. Prass was the clear winner with 52.3 per cent of the vote after 58 per cent of polls accounted for, but Bonnie Feigenbaum, running for the Conservative Party of Quebec, had 24.4 per cent of the votes.

Feigenbaum is well-known to residents of Hampstead, where she served two terms as a municipal councillor and ran for mayor. A longtime Liberal supporter and former chief of staff for federal MP Anthony Housefather, she said she chose to run with the Conservatives because it’s the party most closely aligned with her core values.

“I am pleased that I was able to provide members of my riding with another choice,” Feigenbaum said on Monday evening. “Some took it — and others decided that the devil they knew was better than the devil they didn’t.

“I have not heard anyone say anything negative about me, but Éric (Duhaime, leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec) was an unknown product for our community.”

In Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, where Désirée McGraw ran for the Liberals to fill the the seat vacated by Kathleen Weil, she was declared the winner early on. With 96.9 per cent of polls counted, the internationally recognized public affairs and sustainable development advocate had 50.9 per cent of the vote, or 12,320 votes. Her nearest opponent, Élisabeth Labelle of the QS, received 14.7 per cent of the vote, or 3,566 votes. Balarama Holness of the fledgling Bloc Montréal party received 6.7 per cent of the vote, or 1,637 votes.

In the riding of Marguerite-Bourgeoys, Frédéric Beauchemin, running for the Liberals to fill the seat vacated by Hélène David, garnered 12,301 votes, or 44.8 per cent of the vote with 97 per cent of polls counted.

The riding is made up of the borough of LaSalle, île Rock, île aux Chèvres, île aux Hérons and île des Sept Soeurs. Polling aggregator Qc125.com had pegged it a likely Liberal hold, but as early results came in Beauchemin was neck and neck with Vicky Michaud of the CAQ. She received 23.2 per cent of the vote, or 6,369 votes.

“Marguerite-Bourgeoys is remaining within the Liberal Party and, for me, that was a main objective as a campaign guy on the ground,” said Beauchemin, former managing director and head of capital markets at Scotiabank, on Monday night.

“We decided to do a ton of door-to-door and we connected with the citizens of Marguerite-Bourgeoys and the feedback was just amazing. We were able to get ideas about their issues and talk about security, about public transportation and about business development, which we believe are the issues facing the residents, and so that is what we will be focusing on.

In the riding of Saint-Henri—Sainte-Anne in southwest Montreal, Liberal leader Dominique Anglade won her seat with 36.6 per cent of the vote, or 10,989 votes. The riding has voted Liberal since its creation in 1994 with the fusion of the Sainte-Anne and Saint-Henri ridings; it subsequently gained part of the N.D.G. and Westmount—Saint-Louis electoral districts. Guillaume Cliche-Rivard of the QS was second with 27.2 per cent of the vote, or 8,156 votes.

In Westmount—Saint-Louis, with 97 per cent of polls counted, Liberal incumbent Jennifer Maccarone had 10,065 votes, or 50.97 per cent of the vote, which put her far ahead of the other candidates. QS candidate David Touchette was second, with 12.21 per cent of the vote, or 2,411. votes. Colin Standish, chief of the fledgling Canadian Party of Quebec, was his party’s candidate in the riding and received 975 votes.

sschwartz@postmedia.com

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