Article content On a beautiful sunny late-summer afternoon on Wellington St. in Verdun, folks were milling about, enjoying the luxury of walking in the middle of a street closed to traffic for the summer. People sipped cocktails or coffees, others typed away on their laptops, and the one thing most definitely not on their minds was the upcoming federal byelection Sept.
16 in the riding. Pundits are calling it a crucial test for Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government and with good reason. It’s a key trial for the Liberals because Trudeau’s party clearly doesn’t want to lose another longtime Liberal riding following the byelection loss this year in Toronto—St.
-Paul’s, a riding they had held comfortably for 30 years. That riding was won by the Conservatives in June, a major upset for the Liberals, one that was widely interpreted as a rebuke to Trudeau. The byelection in the riding of Lasalle—Émard—Verdun is happening because the riding’s former MP, David Lametti, resigned in January, after he lost his job as justice minister in Trudeau’s cabinet.
A loss here would be a major blow for the Liberals. A major twist in the campaign came Wednesday when NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced that his longstanding deal to support the Trudeau government had been “ripped up.” In a column published Friday, Gazette columnist and former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair suggested that Singh’s decision to end the deal was perhaps due to the coming byelections in Montreal and Winn.