Photo: Ryan Remiorz The Canadian Press Bloc Québécois candidate for the LaSalle-Émard-Verdun by-election, Louis-Philippe Sauvé, speaks to the media as leader Yves-Francois Blanchet looks on, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Montreal.
Léo Mercier-Ross
Published yesterday at 10:43 p.m. Updated yesterday at 11:01 p.m.
- Canada
Halfway through the campaign for the by-election in LaSalle-Émard-Verdun, Bloc Québécois candidate Louis-Philippe Sauvé now says he is confident of winning the riding on September 16. “On the ground, it’s positive. I'm really on fire and I'm going to continue like this for the next 25 days until the finish line. I think we’re going to win,” he said in an interview with Devoir during a party rally in Verdun on Wednesday.
It was a cultural center in Verdun crowded with activists who welcomed the candidate with applause, accompanied by the former leader of the party, Gilles Duceppe, and the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, made a video appearance, because he was invited to the Democratic convention in Chicago, the third evening of which took place at the same time.
The three men took the opportunity to deliver speeches reaffirming their sovereignist aspirations, but also to recall the importance of the by-election and the next federal election. The results of the by-election could also be decisive for the future of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
As his “only election promise,” Mr. Sauvé declared that he would be “trustworthy until the end.” He was visibly moved and on the verge of tears after his colleagues’ speeches. “I am really very — very — touched, but I tell them ‘what you give me, I will give back a hundredfold,’” he said shortly after the evening concluded.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000During his speech, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who was replacing Yves-François Blanchet, did not hold back from attacking the decisions of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government since 2015, while denouncing the alternative that is Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives. He asked the crowd present if they really believed that Mr. Poilievre would implement policies that were favourable to Quebec, such as “giving it all the powers in immigration”. Questions to which the audience answered unequivocally in the negative, which is what the PQ leader obviously expected.
Gilles Duceppe instead chose to recall the “unexpected” moments in history, such as the creation of the Bloc Québécois in 1991, and the rise of the sovereignist movement that followed. “We have to know how to seize the opportunity, and seizing the opportunity here is to have Louis-Philippe elected as an MP,” he said. The leader of the Parti Québécois recalled the by-election in the riding of Jean-Talon in October 2023, which the Parti Québécois had stolen from the CAQ.
A three-way race
This scenario could in some way be repeated in LaSalle-Émard-Verdun: the riding — a Liberal stronghold since its creation during the 2013 electoral redistribution — has been without an MP since the departure of former federal Justice Minister David Lametti last January. In Quebec, the latest Abacus poll puts the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois neck and neck with 31 and 30% of voting intentions, respectively. Before these results, Quebec was the only province in the country where the Conservatives were not in the lead. The Liberals come in third place with 24% of voting intentions, followed by the New Democratic Party with 12%.
“People need a different political offering,” explains Louis-Philippe Sauvé, confident that he can convince the citizens of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun that the Bloc Québécois “is here for the right reasons, that we are here for the world and that our hearts are in the right place.” The former member of the Institut de recherche en économie contemporaine chooses his words carefully: “The heart in the right place!” is his party’s new slogan.