Louis-Philippe Sauvé works for the party and is far from a star candidate.
The Bloc Québécois candidate in the Sept. 16 byelection in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun is planning to create a “chain reaction” that will generate “a movement toward the Bloc Québécois” on the island of Montreal.
“They’ve started the visual pollution,” says a man, pointing to the signs at the entrance to the de l’Église métro station Wednesday morning.
The man in his 50s, who “doesn’t like politicians,” is rummaging through trash cans looking for cans and bottles with a deposit.
Across the street, four people who appear to have spent the night outside are sitting on the ground in a shaded corner near the church square, where there are sleeping bags and makeshift installations.
Access to housing, the cost of living, homelessness and gentrification are the main issues of the election campaign in the riding, according to a 46-year-old resident walking his dog in the middle of the pedestrianized street.
“Every Monday, at the food bank on the corner of 6th St., there is a lineup of a hundred people or more. It wasn’t like this before. It started during the pandemic, but it’s still going on,” Guillaume Cloutier told The Canadian Press.
“Before, we would see one or two homeless people on Wellington, we knew them, but now there are several of them” and some “have mental-health problems, drug addiction problems,” which leads to “problems of insecurity at night,” said Cloutier, who said he does not yet know the candidates running in the byelection.
The Bloc is the last of the main parties to have announced its candidate in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet was in the Montreal riding Wednesday morning to officially introduce Louis-Philippe Sauvé.
The long-time pro-independence activist is asking his fellow citizens to elect him to “send a strong message” to Ottawa.
He said his election could allow the Bloc to elect other candidates on the island of Montreal, which currently has only one Bloc MP.
He intends to “conquer the hearts” of his fellow citizens by leading “a grassroots campaign” by going door-to-door.
“I will never be far from their backyard,” explained the man who previously worked in the parliamentary wing and research department of the Bloc Québécois before making the leap into politics.
He said he will put forward the issue of housing because “it’s what concerns people the most,” the cost of living, the price of food and the impact of inflation on seniors.
Blanchet said he was not worried about the relative anonymity of his candidate.
“An election campaign is made to become known. … When you are associated with either the Liberal Party or Projet Montréal, being known is not necessarily an advantage,” said Blanchet, referring to his main opponents in this race.
The Conservatives have chosen an entrepreneur named Louis Ialenti.
The riding is considered a Liberal stronghold, but according to a poll conducted by the firm Mainstreet Research three weeks ago, the Liberal Party of Canada has 26.2 per cent of voting intentions — a drop of 16.7 points compared to the last election.
The Bloc Québécois has 23.7 per cent, the NDP 23.3 per cent and the Conservative Party of Canada 11.9 per cent. Nearly 8.7 per cent of respondents say they are undecided.
There will presumably be “a race that is just close enough to attract attention” and present the Bloc’s platform and ideas, Blanchet said Wednesday.
“We are going to propose speeding up the process” to get “social housing” and student housing “off the ground” by removing “harmful intermediary jurisdictions,” the Bloc leader said.
“When you put the word ‘harmful’ in the same sentence as the word ‘housing,’ the word ‘Ottawa’ comes up quickly. They should simply send the social housing money to the Quebec government,” he added.
The Liberals have won the three elections held in the riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun since its creation in 2012.
In the last election, Lametti was re-elected with 43 per cent of the vote, finishing far ahead of his opponents. The Bloc candidate had 22 per cent, the NDP 19 per cent, and the Conservative 7.5 per cent. The People’s Party candidate had 3.4 per cent and the Green Party candidate three per cent.