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 Winnipeg.
Mulcair said that losing those byelections could be devastating for Singh and that the NDP candidate in Lasalle—Émard—Verdun, Craig Sauvé, was hearing on the ground that voters were asking tough questions about the NDP’s alliance with the unpopular Liberals. In short, there’s much at stake. But the only person encountered on Wellington Friday afternoon who seemed to care deeply about the byelection was Sauvé, who was campaigning on the street.
He’d been in the riding earlier in the day with Singh. “People are very happy with what we did deliver,” said Sauvé, who is an independent city councillor in the south-west of the city. “People know very well that the NDP delivered those health-care gains, like dental care, and anti-scab legislation, and other things like that.
I’ve been knocking on doors for five months and they were aware before the posters went up. People are following more than we think. But there is a lot of hate on for the Liberals right now; there’s a lot of people who are frustrated with the Liberal government, so it’s really a change election.
” Sauvé said people were confused by the NDP’s alliance with the Liberals. But in spite of what Sauvé said, folks on Wellington Friday really didn’t seemed to be following the election closely. Ingrid Dorger, who was sitting outdoors working on her laptop and talking on the phone, said she didn’t even realize there was a byelection coming.
“I was travelling, I was abroad, I wasn’t really here,” Dorger said. “I haven’t really invested myself in what’s happening in the political sphere here.” She said she probably won’t vote and when it was suggested the politicians will be disappointed, she said: “Sorry, it’s not happening.
I’m really not following what’s happening here.” Charles-Alexandre Vena said, “The time of Trudeau is already done. He’s done his years and it’s over.
We have to move on. I am pro-Palestinian and he doesn’t feel the anger of the population against what Israel has done. The inaction of the Canadian government has become a real farce.
” The NDP’s Sauvé has said he will try to pressure the Liberal government to do more to condemn Israel for its actions in Gaza. The other main candidates in the riding are Louis-Philippe Sauvé for the Bloc Québécois, Laura Palestini for the Liberals and Louis Ialenti for the Conservatives. Marc Viger Denis, an indie filmmaker, said he’s lost faith in politicians of all stripes.
“We don’t believe in the system any more,” Viger Denis said. “Politicians, the corporations bought them all up. Something has to change.
” He said the fact the NDP split with the Liberals hasn’t really changed how he’ll vote, noting that he is not a big Trudeau fan. “When his father (Pierre Elliott Trudeau) died and he did a speech at Notre Dame (Basilica) ..
. I knew right then and there that he was going to go into politics,” Viger Denis said, referring to the eulogy Justin Trudeau gave at his father’s funeral in October 2000. Viger Denis said he feels the system has to be changed and that how people vote in this byelection isn’t going to change much of anything.
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