Chagnon breezes to victory in Westmount

Liberal MNA Jacques Chagnon was easily re-elected to the seat he has held since 1985, winning close to 75 per cent of the vote (11,041 votes) in the riding of Westmount —St. Louis.

His closest rival was 18-year-old Parti Quebecois candidate Daniella Johnson-Meneghini. She won just over 10 per cent of the vote (1,525 votes). “I am extremely happy right now,” Chagnon said after he thanked supporters who gathered at his Guy Street campaign office to watch the poll results come in. “I am grateful and thankful for the confidence the voters have shown in me by re-electing me. I am really happy but modest by this result.”

Chagnon said he is now looking forward to returning to Quebec City, where he says the Liberals will get to work on preparing themselves to head a renewed majority government lead by Jean Charest. “We’ll do what we’ve been elected for,” he said, referring to the Liberals campaign theme of the economy and the need for stable to government to lead the province through tough times. The party will start by putting together a new cabinet. Chagnon was uncertain what his role would be in the new government, aside from representing his riding. When the National Assembly was dissolved for the election, Chagnon held the post of Deputy Speaker of the Assembly. “I love my role as Deputy Speaker,” he said. “But I don’t know what will happen. I know I will do what I’ve done for the past 23 years,and that is work in the best interest of the voters of Westmount and downtown Montreal.”

Elections Quebec noted that voter turnout for this election was close to the lowest ever, and the lowest since 1927, with roughly 57 per cent of voters showing up at the polls. In Westmount — St. Louis, the turnout was even lower, with less than 37 per cent of voters casting a ballot.

Green Party candidate Patrick Daoust was disappointed by the low turnout and the results. “I think this is a very cynical victory for Mr. Charest,” he said. “The voter turnout for this riding was incredibly low. You had less than one-third of the voters vote for the winning candidate, but they made up 75 per cent of the vote.”

Daoust, who placed second to Chagnon in 2007, finished third this time around, winning 7.4 per cent of the vote, or 1,090 votes. Daoust has been leading a court challenge to change the electoral system, and he said this election exposed the flaws inherent in the system.

The two other candidates running in the election, Nadia Alexan of Quebec Solidaire and Leonidas Priftakis of the ADQ, finished well behind the other candidates. Alexan finished fourth, with about four per cent of the vote (641 votes). Priftakis finished last, receiving only 438 votes, or about three per cent of the vote.

Overall, the Liberals won 66 seats with 42 per cent of the vote, increasing their total by 18 from the 2007 election. The seat count assures them a majority government. The PQ saw renewed support catapult them back into the role of the Official Opposition, winning 51 seats and roughly 35 percent of the vote.

The Action Democatique Quebec party was decimated. The ADQ held 39 seats at dissolution, but only held seven this time around, taking a little less than six per cent of the vote. In a surprising turn of events, Quebec Solidaire candidate Amir Khadir unseated PQ incumbent Daniel Turp in the riding of Mercier, the first QS candidate to win a seat in the National Assembly. Quebec Solidaire won about four per cent of the vote. The Green Party did not win a seat and saw support at just over two per cent. Jean Charest became the first party leader to win three consecutive mandates since Maurice Duplessis of the Union Nationale in the 1950s.