Liberals emphasize getting out the vote

Liberal candidates for three West Island ridings placed an emphasis on getting out the vote, as well as the importance of public transit and the West Island's place as a bastion of federalism in the province at the party's last joint press conference Monday morning. "We're in the third election in four years," said Nelligan MNA and Minister of Immigration of Cultural Communities Yolande James. "We are very, very concerned," she said, insisting that it is more important than ever for West Islanders to head to the polls, despite potential election fatigue.

In March 2007's provincial elections, the West Island ridings of Jacques Cartier, Nelligan and Robert Baldwin all had lower average voter turn-outs than Quebec.

Jacques Cartier incumbent Geoff Kelley, whose riding came closest out of the three to the provincial average of 70 per cent with its own 67 per cent vote, said the popular vote is only symbolic but should definitely be kept into account. "Whether I win by one vote or 10,000 votes doesn't really make a difference at the end of the day," he said, but the percentage of votes is used by politicos of all stripes when trying to analyze Quebecers' political tendencies after elections. "The more Liberal votes we have, the more federalist votes we have," Kelley added.

James also spoke of how other parties tend to divide Quebecers with separatist politics, whereas the Liberals attempt to unite the electorate.

Robert Baldwin incumbent Pierre Marsan spoke about the importance of health care. "We want to improve our local institutions," he said. He said one the Liberal government's new priorities would be to enlarge the emergency room at Lakeshore General Hospital, as well as have more family doctors.

And though all three candidates spoke of the importance of public transit improvement in the West Island, no solid promises for the area were made two weeks ago by Premier Jean Charest when he promised $260 million in improvements to train services, mostly in Laval and Montreal's south shore suburbs. "We need more trains, we need more buses," insisted Kelley.

Kelley said there should be 35 per cent increase in train services in the Montreal area in general. "We will work very hard to make sure that we have our fair share," he said.

The candidates also agreed the shuttle train project from Pierre Elliot Trudeau International to downtown Montreal should also extend to the West Island. That project does not appear on the Liberal Party's official platform, but it was part of a Parti Quebecois transit plan unveiled by Pauline Marois a scant few days after Charest made his own announcement.