QUEBEC — Manon Massé picked up some high-profile support Wednesday in her quest to save her riding of Sainte-Marie-Saint-Jacques from being wiped off the electoral map.
One day after learning the riding could be destined to be carved up as part of a re-distribution plan, both Parti Québécois Leader Jean-François Lisée and Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault offered their support.
“It is to deny democracy,” Lisée said, noting the lack of public consultations by the Commission de la représentation électorale du Québec, which establishes the electoral map.
“No, this is not right, not right at all and we are with her in this fight.”
“Here’s the real question on this issue,” Legault added. “Did the Liberals lobby to mix traditional Liberal voters with people who traditionally don’t vote Liberal because they see political advantages?
“We are asking the question.”
In all, the commission proposes to modify seven of the 28 ridings on the island. Montreal winds up with 27 in the new plan.
In the case of Sainte-Marie-Saint-Jacques, which includes chunks of the Plateau, the Gay Village and Centre-Sud districts, part of it gets attached to Westmount-Saint Louis riding and the rest to other ridings.
The new riding will be called Ville-Marie and include the downtown business district and Griffintown.
But Massé said the proposed change took her completely off guard. In its original first draft of the Montreal map released in 2015, the talk was of merging the ridings of Outremont and Mont-Royal. As a result, nobody in her working-class riding mobilized.
The commission argues it is respecting “natural communities,” but Wednesday, emerging from a meeting with the province’s chief electoral officer, Pierre Reid, Massé said the real battle is just starting.
Technically, there will be five hours of legislative hearings into the proposed changes followed by a 10-day period for citizens to provide comments. Massé said the people in her riding area are already mobilizing.
“He (Reid) is saying he’s respecting the law,” Massé told reporters. “The people of Sainte-Marie-Saint-Jacques were never consulted. For him, it’s a mechanical question.”
Massé said she asked Reid why the commission never considered adding a 126th seat to the legislature as a way around the problem. As it is, her voters will wind up in a “sea of Liberal votes” and QS will lose.
It’s the second setback for the party. In January, co-founder Françoise David announced she’s retiring from politics, leaving only two QS MNAs in the legislature. In the 2014 election, Massé won her riding by 91 votes.
