Longtime Liberal bastion swept up in orange wave
Dorval-Lachine-LaSalle is in the southwestern sector of the island of Montreal. It is bordered by Lake St-Louis to the south, the riding of Lac-St-Louis to the west, the ridings of Mount-Royal, NotreDame-de-Grâce and LaSalleÉmard-Verdun to the east and the ridings of Pierrefonds-Dollard and St-Laurent to the north.
It’s a new riding, created in 2012, the result of the reconfiguration of the former federal ridings of LaSalle-Émard and Notre-Damede-Grâce-Lachine.
According to a Statistics Canada national housing survey, the average family income for the riding is $73,400, although that number does not give an accurate picture of parts of the borough of Lachine, where residents struggle with chronic unemployment and poverty.
The largest linguistic communities are French (43,380) and English (29,815). The riding also has significant Arabic-speaking populations as well as sizable Punjabi, Spanish and Italian communities.
The former ridings of NotreDame-de-Grâce and then NotreDame-de-Grâce-Lachine were Liberal strongholds for decades, with Edmund Tobin Asselin elected in 1962 and 1963, Warren Allmand serving for eight terms and Marlene Jennings for five terms. New Democratic MP Isabelle Morin took the seat as part of the NDP’s orange wave that swept the province in 2011.
The former riding of LaSalleÉmard was staunch Liberal territory, served by Paul Martin from 1988 to 2008. (Martin was prime minister from 2003 to 2006.) Liberal Lise Zarac was elected in 2008, but the NDP’s Hélène LeBlanc won the riding in 2011.
The riding’s redistributed 2011 election results:
NDP: 18,713, Liberals: 13,381, Conservatives: 6,442, Bloc Québécois: 5,250, Green Party: 1,364, Other: 362.
Morin, the incumbent, has spent the last four years meeting with community organizations, listening to the needs of the riding’s disadvantaged population and focusing her energies on ways to promote and support local small and medium-sized businesses in the riding.
She was a teacher in LaSalle and lives in Lachine, so the riding’s concerns are familiar to her. And she was quick to help when it was announced that the Dorval Municipal Golf Course would be returned to its owner, Aéroports de Montréal, at the end of the year.
“If I am elected, I will continue with the work I’ve already started, and that includes fighting to save the golf course,” she said.
Morin and a busload of supporters travelled in early June to Ottawa, where she tabled a petition in the House of Commons, with more than 12,000 signatures calling for the course to be maintained as an important green space in the region.
Morin said there are certain challenges for her constituents that she hears about again and again.
“Whether I’m knocking on a door or visiting a facility for seniors or answering the telephone, I hear that people want an affordable place to live and access to a family doctor,” she said.
Health care is under provincial jurisdiction, but Morin said federal transfer payments should be increased to help seniors who need specialized care as they age.
And she hears about the unemployed, a pressing issue in the riding.
“Almost every family I’ve talked with has a least one member of the family looking for a job,” she said.
Liberal candidate Anju Dhillon, a lawyer, was born and raised in the riding and returned there after law school. She offers pro bono legal advice to people in need and her promotional material reads that she is “the first Canadian Sikh to practise law in Quebec courts.”
This is the first time Dhillon has run for election, but she is no stranger to the Liberals. She began volunteering for the federal party when she was 13 years old.
“I volunteered for Paul Martin. I loved the way he did things,” she said. “I decided to run because I wanted to help people. My impression as I go door to door is that people feel ignored. They want to be heard.”
Dhillon said that if she was elected, the first thing she would do would be to organize monthly open-door events. Constituents could drop by and ask her questions face to face.
Dhillon pays particular attention to the senior population in the riding.
“I visit them and they are alone, struggling to make ends meet,” she said.
“I grew up surrounded by my grandparents and I was the caregiver for my grandmother for four years when she lived with us. My grandmother was fortunate to have her family to look after her. Not everybody is that lucky.”
She spoke of the Liberal party platform, which would allow people to take up to 18 months off to look after an ailing family member.
And she spoke of meeting with borough mayors in her riding to talk about the state of their roads and overpasses and about how best to refresh the commercial district along the riding’s portion of NotreDame St.
When asked if the subject of the niqab came up during her campaigning, she did not hesitate.
“Two women in the entire country have taken the (niqab issue) to court,” she said. “People in this riding are worried about being able to afford groceries. They aren’t complaining about the niqab.”
Businesswoman Daniela Chivu is the Conservative candidate. Her priorities for the riding are employment and affordable housing. She is an outspoken advocate for victims’ rights.
“I was going to my riding office the other day and I witnessed an incident involving six police cars and an officer outside of his patrol car with his hand on his gun,” Chivu said. “Residents need to feel secure in their homes.”
Chivu is an activist for women’s rights and has worked with various groups to combat human trafficking, child marriage and violence against women and children. The mother of one daughter spoke at length about the niqab and its place in Canada.
“It is a delicate subject and cannot be taken lightly,” Chivu said. “People talk to me about it. They point out that they have to take their glasses off to get their picture taken for a driver’s licence, so why should someone be allowed to cover her face during a citizenship ceremony?
“When you swear allegiance to Canada, you should make the sacrifice, step away from your comfort zone for a few minutes and show your face.”
The Bloc Québécois candidate is Jean-Frédéric Vaudry. The 24-year-old has been an active member of the party since he was 16. For the last three years, he has worked at a seniors’ residence in Lachine.
The Green candidate is Vincent J. Carbonneau. The 22-year-old university student is finishing up his undergraduate degree in history at the Université de Montréal. One of his main environmental priorities for the riding is the maintenance of the Lachine Canal and its ecosystems.
Souleye Ndiaye is running as an independent candidate. If elected, his priorities would be to act as both advocate and adviser for his constituents and to push for responsible management of public funds and transparent governance.