Civic Alert: Voting time — and the decision’s not so easy

Are concerns about health care or education really dominant in the riding? Or will Westmounters’ decisions be determined by the sense of having been victimized by the punitive Liberal legislation that accompanied the half-kept promise of demerging? Some might also take into consideration last year’s accelerated equalization of Island-wide property taxes.

At last week’s Meet the Candidate evening in Victoria Hall the agglomeration dominated participants’ thoughts. It has become the symbol of all that’s wrong with the Liberal demergers. In the end, moderator Tom Davis cut off more questions on the subject.

But Jacques Chagnon said this Tuesday that no one had raised the subject with him since he left Victoria Hall last week!

Nevertheless, the agglomeration continues as a topic on talk shows, on English radio at least. Jean Charest was asked about it again when he appeared on both 940 News and CBC’s Daybreak this week. He gave his now standard responses of promising to tweak the present set-up but not do anything radical.



Marks stays Liberal



Karin Marks made it clear on Monday during Westmount’s monthly council meeting that, despite Charest’s “not honourable way” of avoiding to meet with the suburban mayors, her long-time loyalty to the Liberal Party will continue.

Candidates from the ADQ (Caroline Morgan) and the Greens (Patrick Daoust) had asked for her support. Both had taken very positive positions on the demerger issue, but it was necessary to look at other issues, Mayor Marks said.

Her colleagues have varying views on the same issue. With three West Island mayors clearly supporting the ADQ, there is a focus on Geoff Kelley’s Liberal seat in the Jacques Cartier riding. Kelley had a 28,000 majority in 2003.

Despite criticism of his demerger policies, no mayor ran against him, thus denying the possibility of a high profile opponent challenging his safe Liberal seat.



Swing a message



Nevertheless, Baie d’Urfé mayor Maria Tutino, who organized the group’s support for the ADQ, says that even a swing in the vote will send a message to the two traditional main parties that they should no longer take people’s votes for granted.

She is critical of the PQ for the forced mergers and the Liberals for the incomplete demergers. “We are making them realize that they can never again take away our cities,” she said.

Bill Tierney of Saint-Anne de Bellevue is campaigning for the ADQ because, he says, “Quebec people are sick of sovereignty. They want a real choice between parties that have different ideas on social policy.”

Also in the riding, Beaconsfield’s Bob Benedetti will not be voting Liberal in this election. However, like many mayors, he feels it inappropriate to tell people how to vote.



Impasse cause known



In Pointe Claire, Bill McMurchie feels he has made sure that his citizens know who is responsible for the present municipal impasse.

“We are in an unusual position,” the veteran mayor told me. “It used to be that we stayed out of elections at other levels and remained strictly neutral. That stopped with the forced mergers. Then, when we lost everything, it became easy to become involved politically.”

Edgar Rouleau, Dorval’s mayor, feels the same way as Benedetti. He acknowledges that the suburbs have been let down by Charest, but is appreciative of help on infrastructure issues by the local candidate, the outgoing Liberal François Ouimet.



Town Hall orator



Nearer to Westmount, Campbell Stuart of Montreal West has become a strong supporter of the ADQ. He is also at the centre of the controversy over his town’s attempt to stop one of its residential streets being a high-speed bypass for traffic using the nearby autoroute in Lachine.

It became a legal issue and, as the Tremblay Borough of Lachine does not have its own lawyers, Big Montreal waded in and used the term “arterial” to describe the residential route.

To Stuart, this raised the spectre of the agglom and was material for a public meeting in Montreal West yesterday (Wednesday) evening. He was intending to explain why voters should support the ADQ and leader Mario Dumont’s pledge to abolish the agglom and how Montreal’s reaction to the street closing was linked to it.



Olders chooses Greens



In Westmount I’ve heard of no one willing to step up and support the ADQ. However, Dr. Henry Olders, president of the Westmount Municipal Association, has announced his support for the Greens.

He used the WMA web site blog www.wma-amw.org/forum">www.wma-amw.org) to dissect the policies of the present six parties and dismissed f in turn. He was left with Greens and Marxist-Leninist.

“Pretty easy decision!” he blogged, adding: “It's time to give a message to the major parties that they cannot take urban voters for granted. I urge all of you to vote Green.”





The invisible part



Voting is over for 3,107 electors in the Westmount-St. Louis riding. They took part at the advance polls over the weekend and in the mobile stations that the Returning Officer took to people unable to attend a regular polling station, including ten seniors’ residences.

Also an innovation for this election was visits by election staff to homes to enable shut-ins to vote. In the riding 75 people signed up for them, including several inhabitants of the Gray Nuns’ Residence.

Electoral officers verified that applicants were indeed house-bound before arranging these individual ballots. In one home, they discovered that the applicants were “out to dinner,” said the riding’s Assistant Director, Robert Kofend.

He is participating in his first provincial election, although he has been involved in several others. He was employed in the 2006 federal election and has been retained for the next.

The Returning Officer is Christian Gohel, who has been retained by the Director-General of Elections since 1989. In February, he was given a further 10-year mandate to be responsible for the riding.



No goofs



“The job is both tedious and entertaining,” Gohel told me. “Normally, we are an invisible part of an election — unless we goof!”

When not required in Quebec, electoral officers offer to supervise elections or similar events abroad. In the last year Gohel has worked in Haiti and Ivory Coast.

There are about 42,500 electors in Westmount-St. Louis; the final number will not be known until the revision process closes this afternoon.

Main voting takes place on Monday (9.30 a.m. to 8 p.m.) at thirteen locations, five of them in Westmount itself. Familiar voting slips are being used; experiments with electronic voting having been dropped.

About 800 people have been hired to support the election.



Civic Studies



The election buzz is now reaching its peak as candidates build up to Monday’s vote. I asked them about their campaigns and plans for the final days.



Nadia Alexan (Québec Solidaire) “We are new, a small party without funds, so I am doing everything by myself. I have done some door-to-door, but mostly I’ve been on the phone, mainly with Francophones. I will keep on doing this. People are upset over services, particularly health care. They are discouraged and have stopped believing in any system. All three major parties are not tackling the right priorities — those least able to defend themselves. Look at the new Harper budget.”



Jacques Chagnon (Liberal) “It’s the tenth time I have campaigned as a candidate. I’ve met a lot of people in McGill Metro. They were very friendly, many recognizing me although I don’t know them. I’ve heard nothing about the agglom. Surprisingly, the most persistent lobbying group has been campaigners against animal cruelty. I’ve been doing a lot of travelling around the province for the party. This week, I’ve been asked to help in Yamaska and Valleyfield, with Sainte-Hyacinthe on Saturday. All are current PQ ridings which we have hopes of turning around. I don’t know where I will be on Sunday, but I’ll be back in this riding on Monday. I’ll tour the polling stations as I did for the advance voting last weekend. That went very well.”



Patrick Daoust (Green) “We’re very encouraged and felt we are getting our message across. The candidates’ meeting in Victoria Hall was interesting, although I wish more people had been there. I’m the Green Party coordinator for the West End and we are putting a lot of effort into it, as we have good chances to come second in D’Arcy McGee and NDG, as well as Westmount-St. Louis. We are helping each other putting up posters and distributing fliers. I’ve done some door-to-door, but have really made efforts to introduce myself in public places, like stores and so on. People have been interested in our demerger position as well as environment issues and often want to discuss where to place their votes.”



Denise Laroche (PQ) “I only got 11 per cent of the vote last time and we will do better this. I have done a lot of door-to-door, creating a wider presence. But now I’m spending time on the phone to react individually with voters. They say there is not enough spent on health, education and the environment. We just speak of the major themes — there is not time to explain the PQ platform. People want us to be a responsible government with all power in Quebec. Nobody uses the word sovereignty. We want to be responsible for our own country. The candidates’ meeting in Victoria Hall was well organized but there were not many people there. Abolishing the agglom is obviously very important to many people.”



Nicholas Lin (Marxist-Leninist) Did not reply by deadline.



Caroline Morgan (ADQ) “In the final days I’ll be in the riding handing out flyers and introducing myself. The Atwater and Guy Metros have been good for me. Lots of my potential voters use them; other stations are mainly commuters. The most frequent comments concern the agglom and the ADQ’s constitutional position. On Monday, I spoke to a women’s group, on Wednesday to a collective kitchen. Poverty is an issue. Life is tough for some people who have a hard economic time. I’ve learnt not to go door-to-door during hockey games and when people are watching a big TV show.”



Community activist Don Wedge can be reached at calert@web.net. His columns are archived at www.westmountexaminer.com,">www.westmountexaminer.com,">www.westmountexaminer.com, go to Opinion.