Still red in Pierrefonds-Dollard

There were no surprises in Pierrefonds-Dollard as Liberal MP Bernard Patry was re-elected for the sixth consecutive time since 1993 during last night’s federal elections.

Patry won the riding with 20,883 votes. His Conservative Party rival Pierre-Olivier Brunelle came in second with 11,435. The NDP’s Shameem Siddiqui came in third with 4,741 votes, Bloc Quebecois Candidate Reny Gagnon amassed 4,301 votes to finish fourth and Ryan Young of the Green Party gathered 3,105 votes for last place. “There was a big difference in this election; it was the first time running after being in the opposition, getting re-elected becomes much more difficult,” said Patry.

Canadians elected a stronger Conservative Party minority with 143 seats. However, Patry reassures the Liberal Party “will not play the empty seat.” “Harper is going to have to change his tune, he didn’t get a majority, he has to listen to the will of Canadians,” said Patry. “(What bugged me the most about this election) is (Stéphane) Dion had a great platform; the Conservatives came out with their platform last week, they ran a negative campaign.”

In 2006 the Liberal Party won with a margin of 13,375 votes against Conservative candidate Don Rae. Despite the Liberals' strong base in Pierrefonds-Dollard, Brunelle believes some day he will win the riding as a Tory. “Fifteen years ago this riding was Conservative, and we’ll bring it back to the Conservatives,” said Brunelle, announcing he will run in the next elections. “I look at this election as a preparation for the next elections. People here want change locally. This time they didn’t know me, but they do now. My next campaign won’t start when Parliament will be dissolved. It will begin tomorrow.”

Brunelle, now in his second campaign after running for the Verdun riding of Jeanne-Le-Ber during the 2006 elections, hopes he will add experience to his resume by working in a Cabinet ministry and “learn how the government works, so I can come back in the next elections and tell voters about the experience I gained from working in Ottawa.”

The Green Party meanwhile, improved their voting numbers to 3,105 from 2,645 in 2006, and hopes the upward trend will continue into the next elections. “We’re the party of the future,” said Ryan Young, Green Party candidate. “We don’t have a lot of resources, but (since we gained in the popular vote) we’ll have double the money in the next elections; we’re now part of the mainstream parties and will hopefully attract more good candidates.”

Pierrefonds-Dollard 2008 Results

LIB Bernard Patry 20,883 46.85%

CON Pierre-Olivier Brunelle 11,435 25.65%

NDP Shameem Siddiqui 4,741 10.64%

BQ Reny Gagnon 4,301 9.65%

GRN Ryan Young 3,105 6.97%

ML Marsha Fine 110 0.25%