Although the by-election hasn't yet been announced, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has six months from when the seat became vacant to name the date. Since Westmount-Ville Marie's long-serving Liberal MP, Lucienne Robillard, resigned on Jan. 25, Harper has until July 25 to decide.

Although the election itself can take place up to two years later, tradition holds that a seat should not be vacant more than a year. In an interview with the Examiner this week, Dufort, a labour lawyer, said he expects the by-election to take place in September or October.

"I have been in certain areas of the Plateau and certain areas of Little Burgundy and am really appalled by the condition of housing in some of those areas," he said, explaining how he would support measures to target homelessness if elected. "The number of homeless in the riding is increasing every year and we have to look at that very closely.

"We require from community groups a plan of action, community groups that deal really with homeless people … so that individuals can become autonomous. It's a long process and we're not expecting 100 per cent results. We have to find them a place to live and we have to provide them with some kind of initial supervision and eventually find them jobs."

Such measures, he maintained, would cover about a third of the homeless. But the others have more serious problems which are worsened by drug abuse.

"This is a very difficult task to deal with, the level of success is limited, but we need to work at it. But the most serious aspect is the age of the people who have become homeless. Young kids from 16 to 22 have increased substantially, and if we lose them we lose them for a long time."

Led in Quebec by Senator Michael Fortier, the Conservatives are preaching a hard-line against crime. Dufort said he agrees with the stance. "Public security is a real problem downtown," he said. "Just as recently as last week we've had two killings near some of the bars. It's a very serious problem and we have to look at it very clearly.

"And, yes, increasing funding to provide more policing is important," he added. "However, there are two things that we need to look at — prevention and rehabilitation. Policing has to deal, as well, with prevention. It means that the police will have to take a more community approach with the people on the street, Secondly, if they have to go to prison, we have to make sure that they have a good chance of being rehabilitated."