Elections by the numbers

The strong tradition of voting Liberal in the West Island saw little change during this federal election campaign, with Liberal incumbents in Lac St. Louis, Notre-Dame-de Grâce-Lachine and Pierrefonds-Dollard re-elected, and a Bloc incumbent returning in Vaudreuil-Soulanges. However, a comparison between 2006 and 2008 voting behaviour reveals all NDP candidates improved their standings, and some Conservatives did as well.

Lac St. Louis NDP candidate Daniel Quinn led the pack. With 15.8 per cent of the vote, Quinn finished third place, just like in 2006, but he saw a boost of five per cent. Similarly, another returning New Democrat, NDG/Lachine candidate, Peter Deslauriers, shot up to 15.2 per cent from his 2006 count of 11.82, still in fourth place but significantly narrowing the gap between himself, the Bloc and the Conservatives.

The only new NDP face in the area, student Maxime Héroux-Legault in Vaudreuil-Soulanges, earned 9.6 per cent of the riding's vote, slightly less than double his predecessor.

As for Pierrefonds-Dollard, New Democrat Shameem Sidiqqui, who had ran in '06 as well, upped his vote count by three per cent for a total of 10.6 per cent, finishing a distant third behind Conservative Pierre-Olivier Brunelle.

Brunelle upped his party's standings despite still finishing second best. In fact, though trumped by Liberal incumbent Bernard Patry's 46.85 per cent of the popular vote, Brunelle's 25.65 per cent, which translates into an increase by two per cent over his party predecessor in 2006, ranks him as the Conservative on the island of Montreal with the second highest vote percentage, right behind Mount Royal candidate Rafael Tzoubari, who also lost to a Liberal heavyweight.

Vaudreuil-Soulanges' Conservative candidate increased his percentage votes as well. "Star" candidate Michael Fortier, former Senator and Minister of Public Works, who then moved on to become Minister of International Trade before stepping down from these positions to run as MP, grabbed 15, 496 votes, or 23.7 per cent, an increase of four per cent over his 2006 predecessor.

Lac St. Louis Conservative Andrea Paine did slightly worse than she had in 2006, finishing with a three per cent drop by gathering 23.5 per cent of the riding's votes. Her counterpart in NDG/Lachine, Carmine Pontillo, saw a one per cent drop compared to his '06 predecessor, with 16 per cent of the vote.

Both Liberal incumbents in the two largest West Island ridings, Francis Scarpaleggia in Lac St. Louis and the aforementioned Bernard Patry, finished well ahead of their closest competitors but still lost a little in percentage. Scarpaleggia dropped from 48.16 per cent in 2006 to 46.4, and Patry had gathered 51.12 per cent of the vote in 2006. NDG/Lachine's Marlene Jennings, also an incumbent, dropped her percentage by four per cent to finish at 44.6 per cent, but holds the honour of retaining the highest margin of victory among all four local ridings, with a difference of 28.4 per cent between herself and Conservative Carmine Pontillo. Vaudreuil-Soulanges Liberal candidate Brigitte Legault finished with 21.3 per cent of voter's ballots, a drop of about seven per cent to her predecessor, "star" candidate Marc Garneau.

Percentage varied little for both the Bloc and Green Party candidates in all ridings. Meili Faille, the Bloc incumbent in Vaudreuil-Soulanges, finished with a commanding lead with 41.3 per cent of her riding's votes, a two per cent drop in percentage. Her Green rival Jean-Yves Massenet hovered around his predecessor's vote with four per cent.

Maxime Clément, Bloc candidate in Lac St. Louis, dropped to 5.7 per cent from his predecessor's 7.65, and Green Peter Graham increased by two per cent to reach 8.6 per cent.

In NDG/Lachine, Green candidate Jessica Gal raised her party's standings by almost two per cent to reach 7.7 per cent, whereas Bloc candidate Eric Taillefer gathered 15.9 per cent of the vote, a loss of five per cent to his predecessor which saw his party fall to third place in that riding.

Pierrefonds-Dollard Bloc candidate Reny Gagnon also lost 3 per cent of his predecessor's vote to finish at 9.6 per cent, whereas Green Ryan Young rose 1.5 per cent to reach 7.