Off-Island riding race is on

The off-island Vaudreuil-Soulanges riding might just be home to the most suspenseful election campaign in the area this year, with a seat that is hotly disputed between Bloc Québecois incumbent MP Meili Faille, Liberal candidate Brigitte Legault, and Conservative candidate Michael Fortier.

"I had little hope of getting a victory (in 2004)," said Faille, who came to power back then and retook the riding in 2006 with 43 per cent of the vote.

Faille, who much like the rest of the Bloc, carefully avoided speaking of her party's traditional sovereignist platform during in an interview with The Chronicle, focused instead on her experience as a government civil service worker and her local roots.

"I'm from the riding," she said.

Her Liberal rival, Brigitte Legault, made little of the claim. "It's nice to say you're someone from the area," she said. "I am a native Vaudreuil girl. My family still lives there," she added.

This will mark the first time Legault has entered a federal election as a candidate, but she has worked for the Liberal Party for years, as both a campaign organizer and the national VP of the party's francophone wing.

Both candidates agreed much of the issues in their riding revolve around the continuing demographic growth. With the population estimated to be at over 120,000 as of the last election in 2006, and showing no signs of slowing down, dealing with transit and infrastructure will be a priority.

"Transport is a big issue," Faille said, and Legault pointed to two highways through the area, the 30 and 20, that are in strong need of renovation.

Legault also spoke of the Soulanges Canal, a waterway running along several of the municipalities that are part of the riding, and has the potential to become a key tourism development project if its locks, walls, bridges and remaining infrastructure are developed.

Creating employment in the area will also be important, Legault said, in order to lessen the burden of many off-island residents commuting to Montreal to work there.

Faille put a strong emphasis on her past work in the immigration bureau and as immigration critic for the Bloc. The Bloc's presence remains important for Canadians, she said, in order to keep watch when the government messes up on dossiers such as the "Lost Canadians" issue last spring, which saw many Canadians scrambling to find out whether outdated provisions in the country's citizenship act meant they were not citizens.

Michael Fortier, the Conservative Party candidate for Vaudreuil-Soulanges, could not contact The Chronicle for comment as of press time. In a recent visit to the West Island in his past role as Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Fortier promised $100 billion for infrastructure in small municipalities over the next few years. Since then, Fortier, an unelected senator, has been renamed Minister of International Trade.

The NDP and Green Party of Canada did not have registered candidates in the riding as of press time.