Solidarity activists gathered at the Brasseur de Montréal warehouse erupted in joy just after 9 p.m. With good reason: you toppled the liberal Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne castle in the by-elections on Monday.
Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, a lawyer specializing in immigration and wearing the colors of the Left Party, becomes the twelfth Solidarity MP in the National Assembly.
“We won. We won,” chanted Québec solidaire supporters at the end of a long campaign in which they did everything they could to “get the votes out.”
The second time will have been good for Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, who unsuccessfully campaigned for election in south-west Montreal on October 3rd.
Québec solidaire received 44.5% of the vote, compared to 29% for the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), 11.4% for the Parti Québécois (PQ), 9.4% for the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) and 2 .7% for the Quebec Conservative Party.
Dominique Anglade – who left the Liberal leadership on November 7 and took up her seat as MP on December 1 – has represented Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne voters since 2015. The PLQ for around 35 years.
Guillaume Cliche-Rivard entered to the applause and cheers of dozens of supporters. “I’ve worked really hard,” he whispered in the ear of Rosemont deputy Vincent Marissal as he followed in the footsteps of speakers Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and Manon Massé onto a small stage.
“I can’t wait for him to question the immigration minister [Christine Fréchette] ‘, Mrs. Massé started, delighted with the ‘victory […] overwhelming” of its political formation.
Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne voters “turned the page on 35 years of Liberal rule by supporting QS’s proposed ‘Hope’ and ‘Change’,” continued Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois with a shared smile away the ears. In his eyes, “the question of the ballot box” of the by-election was to show “who is the best opposition” to the government of François Legault. “No, not all of Quebec is Caquiste,” he told cheering activists.
Newly elected MP Guillaume Cliche-Rivard promised “not to let anyone down”. “The work has only just begun,” he said, vowing to have a “strong voice” for “inclusion” and “social justice” heard in the National Assembly.
hard defeat
For his part, Liberal Christopher Baenninger will not have managed to keep the Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne race in the PLQ’s fold. Disappointment was evident on the faces of the activists who had gathered at the Memento brewery, a few kilometers west of the Brasseur de Montréal facilities.
Baenninger said these are not the results he expected. “I gave my 110% in this campaign with the Quebec Liberal Party team and activists,” he said in a written statement sent to Le Devoir.
The social entrepreneur nonetheless said he was proud of the field work done and congratulated Mr Cliche-Rivard.
The PLQ suffered a historic defeat in Quebec’s most recent election, winning 14.37% of the popular vote and electing 21 MPs. It now has 19 deputies.
At the helm of the Qc125 poll aggregator, Philippe J. Fournier wrote on Twitter Monday night that the PLQ was “cooked” as a political force. “The PLQ as a Political Force in Quebec, 1867-2023 RIP,” he tweeted, while specifying that “the PLQ will not die” for all of this.
Cautious optimism
Solidarity remained cautiously optimistic throughout the evening as they did not know the origin of the first ballots counted.
“If they’re from Griffintown, it’s very good. If they come from Saint-Henri, it’s less good,” summarized an organizer, eyes on a screen.
A few paces away, Siham and Gabrielle hugged as the preliminary results were announced. “We gave everything we could,” said the “full-time volunteer Siham,” who wore a cotton sweatshirt in left-wing party colors. “I have hope,” Gabrielle continued at his side.
His hopes were not disappointed.
Parti Québécois Andréanne Fiola, who finished the race in third place, said the results were a sign her party was making progress. On October 3, in Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne, the PQ finished fourth behind the CAQ. “You can see that we have a tailwind,” she enthused in a telephone interview.
The 23-year-old is proud to have felt the pulse of the population during the election campaign. “There are so many people who have revealed to us their situation in terms of the housing crisis, the cost of living, the French in decline, their hope for independence,” she added, after leaving election night accompanied by her chef Paul St-Pierre Plamondon at Brasserie Côte St-Paul.
On Twitter, Prime Minister François Legault congratulated the winner as well as the other candidates, starting with the Caquiste Victor Pelletier.
At the end of the line is Mr. Pelletier said he was proud of the campaign he led. “Of course these may not be the results we wanted, but in any case I couldn’t be prouder of everything we have achieved with our volunteers,” said the President of the CAQ au Devoir Follow-Up Commission.
On October 3, in Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne, the Caquistes came third with 17.7% of the vote. On Monday, they took fourth place with 9.5% of the vote.
The 21-year-old wants to remain politically active. “I think it’s important that we have young people who are politically engaged and passionate about Quebec,” he said.
Conservative Lucien Koty, who can be reached by phone, said he was disappointed with the result because he hoped his party would do better in this constituency than last autumn. At the time of writing, Quebec’s Conservative Party was in fifth place, as in the Oct. 3 general election.
“The people of Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne also made their choice, we have to respect that,” said the IT consultant, who spent the evening at the Dominion Warehouses.