A slap in the face for the Parti Québécois

By Marie-Helene Verville

marie-helene.verville@transcontinental.ca

The Liberals got re-elected in all four local West Island ridings (Jacques Cartier, Nelligan, Robert Baldwin and Marquette), but for the Parti Québécois, who historically inhabit second place in local ridings – albeit a distant second – it was worse than that. The party found itself in fourth place – behind the Libs, the ADQ and the Green Party – in three West Island ridings (Jacques Cartier, Nelligan and Robert Baldwin) at press time.

At 10 p.m. Monday, the Green Party found themselves in third place in Jacques Cartier, weith candidate Ryan Young coming in behind the ADQ's Walter Rulli. In Robert Baldwin, the ADQ candidate Ginette Lemire – who was tough to find over the course of the campaign – held second place in that riding's tally.

Reached by phone, ADQ candidate Rulli was happy with the gains his party made at the polls. He spared no compliment describing ADQ leader Mario Dumont.

"I am a little disappointed that I lost, but I am a realist. (Kelley won the riding by 28,000 votes in 2003) I think we'll be in an even better spot come next election," he said happily.

The atmosphere was very different at the PQ's Montreal headquarters downtown at Club Soda. Beaten Robert Baldwin PQ candidate Alexandre Page-Chasse said PQ candidates needed more support from their leader.

"It's disappointing, but I didn't want to not come downtown," he said, adding that sovereignists he met over the course of the campaign expressed disappointment with the party and told him they were switching allegiances to the ADQ, because of concerns about leader Andre Boisclair's performance. Left-leaning federalists tended to opt for the Green Party, he added.

All the same, neophyte candidates Page-Chasse and Jacques Cartier candidate Sophia Caporicci were pleased with the campaign they ran.

"It was a very clean, respectful campaign in Jacques Cartier," Caporicci confirmed. Reached later by phone, Nelligan PQ candidate Dorothee Morin said the campaign had been "educational."