Low voter turn-out for West Islanders

Just as in provincial elections last year, West Island voters returned their Liberal incumbent MNAs to their seats with overwhelming percentages last week, and just as last year, they did so with an underwhelming turn-out.

"We've now come out of the third election where turn-out is declining," said John Abbott College political science professor James Leeke.

Provincially, voter turn-out has never been lower, with only 57.3 per cent of Quebec's eligible voters casting their ballots. In the West Island, however, apathy was even stronger.

Of the four ridings in the region, Jacques Cartier voters were the closest to close the gap with the rest of Quebec with an average of 52.8 per cent, followed by Marquette's 49 per cent. Next was Nelligan, with 46.5 per cent, and last came Robert Baldwin, where only 41.5 per cent of eligible voters made their voices heard, according to Elections Quebec.

"I think the English voter on the West Island is more alienated than anybody else," said Leeke.

He said a number of factors combined to make turn-out low in the West Island. Local voters more or less knew Liberals would return to power in overwhelming numbers, Leeke said.

"I didn't see great efforts by the political parties to get out the vote," he added.

Though the weather was particularly disagreeable on Election Day, Leeke thought that had little to do with the turn-out.

Meanwhile, Elections Quebec did not have much of an explanation as to why voter turn-out was so low. "Our director-general even qualified it as catastrophic," said spokesperson Cynthia Gagnon.

She said the organization will conduct a study along with a research chair at Université de Laval, part of which would focus on voter turn-out.

"Ultimately, only voters can tell us why they didn't vote," she added.

The most common thread among all four West Island ridings was the fall of the ADQ, which did not manage to finish in the top three in any riding except Marquette, where it cracked third.

The Parti Québecois and the Green Party of Quebec rose up a little in most ridings, though with the lower voter turn-out, that did not necessarily translate into increased percentages. For example, though Ryan Young finished in second place for the Greens in Jacques Cartier, his percentage was only 7.5 per cent, lower than in 2007 when he arrived in third place with 11.1 per cent.

Nelligan Parti Québecois candidate Anaïs Valiquette-L'Heureux, who ran in her first provincial election, boosted both her party's ranking and percentage of popular votes. Finishing in second behind Liberal incumbent Yolande James, Valiquette-L'Heureux gathered 14.5 per cent of the popular vote, an improvement over the 2007 candidate who finished third with 8.8 per cent.

"I'm the PQ candidate who finished with the highest percentage increase in any riding in Quebec," she explained. It was with a 61 per cent rise in the popular vote that Valiquette-L'Heureux finished in second.

She refused to comment on the low voter turn-out in West Island ridings, focusing instead on the PQ's performance in Nelligan. "I'm glad at least our people were out there," she said.

Representatives for the Liberal Party, the Green Party and the ADQ did not return phone calls for comment as of press time.