MONTREAL – She’s delightfully blunt, with a self-deprecating sense of humour. He’s a likeable mama’s boy with a strong sense of community.
Both are Haitian. Both are extremely successful in their fields. And both are considered role models of something better in the poor, violence-plagued, multicultural federal riding they seek to represent.
Liberal Emmanuel Dubourg and New Democrat Stephane Moraille are vying to replace former Liberal MP Denis Coderre, who left federal politics after 16 years to become Montreal’s mayor.
Of four federal byelections taking place Monday, Bourassa riding in particular is viewed as a litmus test for the 2015 general federal election. Will the NDP’s 59-seat sweep of Quebec in 2011 – the so-called “Orange Crush” – prove a blip in history or the start of a trend? Will the Liberals hold the riding Coderre once dominated – and begin restoring what they see as the natural order of things, by boosting the mere seven Quebec seats they won in 2011?
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and NDP leader Tom Mulcair have both made frequent trips to the riding to campaign with their candidates. In the final week, Mulcair was there twice.
A recent public opinion poll suggested Dubourg, a Quebec Liberal thrice elected to the National Assembly and a former Canada Revenue Agency accountant, had half the vote locked up. Yet Moraille argues the tide is shifting.
“I’m on the ground. I do door-to-door almost everyday,” she said over a four-course steak lunch at a Greek restaurant that is also her unofficial campaign headquarters. The former Bran Van 3000 singer and entertainment lawyer quipped about her hearty appetite and the weight she’s gained since her days as a ballerina and Zumba instructor.
“The way people talk about us has changed,” she said. “We feel it. There’s something happening. We might take it.”
Whether it’s her earthy personality or her sharp attacks – she’s been accused of waging a negative campaign, regularly slamming Dubourg for giving up his neighbouring provincial seat to take a stab at federal politics and accepting $100,000 severance in the process – the NDP message may be resonating.
“I voted for the NDP because I think the NDP will do more than the others. I’m convinced of Mr. Mulcair,” said one voter, Pierre Bernier, who previously backed Coderre. “The Liberals: Trudeau is still too young.”
Moraille promises to amend the Criminal Code to make assaulting taxi drivers — many of whom live in the riding — an aggravating factor during sentencing and wants to push for a tax credit for taxi drivers who switch to green vehicles. She has thrown her support behind Haitian activists protesting the Dominican Republic’s recent decision to strip citizenship from thousands of children of Haitian migrants.
Dubourg, who has also faced criticism for leaving a candidate’s debate early and for failing to take as strong a stand on the Dominican issue, said he isn’t worried.
He argued the NDP isn’t the same without Jack Layton. And he defended his severance, noting nine per cent of every Quebec politician’s paycheque is set aside for this purpose.
“I like to meet people to tell them who I am, my professional background, what I did in the National Assembly and to tell them what I would like to do for them,” he said before heading to a run-down mall to doorstop shopkeepers and patrons.
Youth unemployment and security issues are among his chief concerns and he’s proposes to a “round table of elected officials.” By working more closely with his provincial and municipal counterparts, he wants to better serve constituents who don’t always know which level of government to turn to.
He wears fancy suits, gold rings and drives an expensive sport utility vehicle through the rough-and-tumble riding, pointing out his old high school and the home he grew up in with his single mother and three older sisters, not far from the infamous 2008 police shooting of Fredy Villanueva.
His dad died when he was three months old. He speaks fondly of his mother Elvire, a seamstress, and regrets she never got to see him succeed in politics, having died four years before he was first elected to the provincial legislature.
He’s also a single dad who divorced 18 years ago and shared custody of his two, now adult, boys.
“There’s a lot of young people in the riding who have the same kind of situation,” he said. “I think that those young people will see me maybe as a role model.”
tcohen@postmedia.com
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Bourassa at a glance
– Population: 100,453
– Immigrant population: 36,080
– Visible minority population: 39,145
– Median age of population: 42
– After French, the most common languages spoken at home are: English, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Creole
– Average income: $25,986
– Source: 2011 Census
Emmanuel Dubourg at a glance
– Liberal member of Quebec National Assembly for Viau riding (elected three times since 2007)
– Chartered accountant with Canada Revenue Agency, teacher
– Spent two years as an international consultant on taxation in Mali
Stephane Moraille
– Entertainment and media law lawyer
– Former singer with Juno award-winning Canadian band Bran Van 3000, famous for the single “Drinking in L.A.”, one-time Cecchetti Council of America ballerina and cardio-funk dance instructor
– Parents named her Stephane because they thought she was going to be a boy.
Also on the ballot
– Daniel Duranleau (Bloc Quebecois)
– Serge Lavoie (Rhinoceros Party)
– Rida Mahmoud (Conservative Party)
– Danny Polifroni (Green Party)
How Bourassa voted in the 2011 federal election
– Liberal (Denis Coderre): 41 per cent of vote (15,550 votes)
– NDP (Julie Demers): 32 per cent of vote (12,270 votes)
– Bloc Quebecois (Daniel Mailhot): 16 per cent of vote (6,105 votes)
– Conservative (David Azoulay): 9 per cent of vote (3,354 votes)
Green (Tiziana Centazzo): 1.6 per cent of vote (613 votes)
Voter turnout: 55 per cent
Related articles
- Justin Trudeau still making rookie mistakes: Hébert (thestar.com)
- PM calls four federal byelections for Nov. 25 (vancouversun.com)
- Poll shows Liberals leading 3 out of 4 by-elections (globalnews.ca)
