It Could Have Been a Trudeau Landslide

Very interesting, I think.

My friend, Antonio, has posted the number of membership cards sold and the turnout by candidate. The intended turnout for Justin was much higher - the problem was confusion among some residents of the Papineau riding.

I was talking to a gentleman who is very active in the large Greek community in Park Ex at the Trudeau reception after the victory. On two fronts a couple of thousand more people would have come out for Justin.

1. Among Greek-Canadian Liberal members in Papineau, the support was split between Mary Deros and Justin Trudeau. However it appears that Justin had a lot more support than that. Since the membership cut-off on March 29th, my friend has been approached by many, many people trying to sign up to support Justin. Apparently some people even refused to believe they couldn't vote today.

2. This is perhaps poor comms on the part of LPCQ, but many didn't even know they had to be Liberals to go out to vote for Justin today. Hundreds of non-Liberals in the Greek community intended to go to Cégep André Grasset to vote for Justin Trudeau as they believed all residents had the right to vote like during an election. Just goes to show that Justin LOCKED DOWN the Greek community not Mary Deros as was widely reported. He got out a good percentage of his vote AND could even have managed to get out the non-Liberals.

Justin ran a great campaign and I am very happy for him.

Mulcair Makes His Choice

Quebec's former environment minister, Thomas Mulcair has chosen to run as an NDP star candidate in Quebec rather than selling out to the Conservatives, who also wanted him. He lives in my beautiful riding of Lac-Saint-Louis, but it's not likely he will run here. The Gazette suggests he may run in Outremont if a by-election is held. It would be interesting, though, if he opted to run in Laval-les-Iles, which includes Chomedy (his provincial seat) where constituents are still annoyed with Raymonde Folco.

Mulcair was a strong critic of his own government's environmental record, as well as the nonsense spewed last year by Rona Ambrose. He chose the New Democrats because he believes they are the best on environmental issues. This should be very interesting. The NDP organisation in Quebec is pitiful and this guy could be very good for them.

Michel C. Auger Mistaken

I had wanted to respond to this the other day, but time got away. Sebastien over at Liberal View From Quebec was discussing Dion in Quebec and linked to a Michel C. Auger article, stating Thursday's excellent speech in Saint-Laurent was poorly attended by Liberals and that there were more Senators present than MPs. Untrue. While our province isn't exactly top-heavy with Liberal MPs, present and accounted for were:

Francis Scarpaleggia
Bernard Patry
Irwin Cotler
Lucienne Robillard
Denis Coderre
Raymonde Folco
Pablo Rodriguez

And of course, the MP for Saint-Laurent himself.

And while I did not actually see Marlene Jennings and Massimo Paccetti, this does not mean they were not there. Pretty sure Paul Martin and Marcel Proulx were not present, but the bulk of Quebec MPs were there, as well as a healthy smattering of Senators, defeated and future MPs (Denis Paradis and Eleni Bakopanos, to name a couple), a pack of future and former candidates, as well as riding contingencies from all over. Either M. Auger was blinded by the brilliance of our Leader or he just wasn't paying attention to who was in the room.

Caption Contest, Anyone?

Make my day.

Gazette: An Anglo for Westmount-Ville-Marie

Old news, I know. But the Montreal Gazette and the National Post published this piece while I was sunning myself on the Mayan Riviera and I think it's worthy of comment.

As we all know, Westmount-Ville-Marie is safe as houses for the LPC - and it just might have something to do with the high percentage of Anglos and English-speaking Allophones living there. MP Rodriguez pointed out earlier this week that LPCQ will be focussing on attracting more francophone and off-Island support. This is good and necessary, but what about rewarding voter loyalty? The LPCQ would be largely dead in the water were it not for Anglo voters, yet Anglo elected representation is almost nil. Unlike in some ridings in the regions outside of Montreal, running an Anglo is Westmount would not negatively affect Liberal numbers. I think the Gazette is bang on in suggesting Montreal Anglo support for the federal Liberals since time immemorial should be rewarded by running a candidate from this underrepresented group. Is it really any wonder that Quebec Anglos feel taken for granted by both the federal and provincial Liberals?

Only By-Elections this Year

This was on the radio news this morning, but here is the only press version I have found so far. Harper will hold by-elections to replace Jean Lapierre in Outremont, Yvan Loubier in Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot and Michel Gauthier in Roberval and that will be it for this year. Unless, of course, according to Harper, the three opposition parties scheme to bring down the government.

A rumoured Liberal candidate for Outremont is Jocelyn Coulon, which makes one wonder about the claim that this coveted riding - as well as Lasalle-Emard - will be given to a woman. One can only hope that the Liberals come up with better candidates for the other two ridings than they did last time. Preferably females, too.