D'Arcy McGee, Mont-Royal, St. Laurent

By Joel Goldenberg, August 29th, 2012

Inevitably, the campaigns of each of the parties are heating up in general as only a few days remain before Tuesday's provincial election.
In D'Arcy McGee, Liberal incumbent Lawrence Bergman touted Premier Jean Charest's recent announcements  as “proof that the Liberal government is dedicated to assisting seniors.
“A Liberal government will provide additional support to natural caregivers as well as to families that choose to live in intergenerational homes,” Bergman said. “ It will also invest in the creation of 1,000 extra places for the provision of transitional care as well as some $35 million for significant improvements to long-term care institutions. The Liberal objective is to improve the well-being of our senior citizens. While the desire of seniors is to live in their own homes as long as possible, where it is no longer the case, the intermediate facilities can offer a lifestyle for autonomous persons while ensuring medical support, which is required.”
The local Quebec Liberal campaign also reported that for the first time since he ran for office in 1994, several of Bergman's posters were defaced, depicting him with different types of facial and head hair. “It is deplorable,” said Bergman. “We have the right to disagree in a democratic society, but vandalism has no place during an election campaign.”
The Suburban has seen some Liberal posters in other Montreal island ridings defaced as well.
Bergman has also been busy meeting with various organizations in the riding and visiting various residences. He is also spending time at his committee room and greeting constituents at Quartier Cavendish and the Côte St. Luc Shopping Centre.
CAQ candidate Sophie Leroux, whose posters are very present in the riding, contacted us this week, telling us that she has been meeting constituents informally in places like all of the local parks, Queen Mary Road and other places with a lot of public traffic.
“I'm distributing a lot of postcards to make sure our message is getting across,” she said Monday. “I still have a lot of education to do. I'm informing people of our basic positions - on the constitution, Bill 101, the school boards, making sure no misinformation was being transmitted - setting the record straight. On Bill 101, the party is not planning to change anything, they just want to apply the law and make sure linguistic peace is maintained. There's no need for another confrontation.”
In other activity, not much poster presence from the PQ. We saw small posters from Émilie Beauchesne of Québec Solidaire, particularly in the commercial section of Queen Mary Road. That's where we also saw small posters from independent candidate Abraham Weizfeld, who The Suburban saw gathering signatures in a Queen Mary apartment building recently for his candidacy.
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In Mont-Royal, Liberal incumbent Pierre Arcand had a busy week. He held a moderately well attended town hall meeting last week in Town of Mount Royal, where he spoke about Liberal policy and answered questions on the Plan Nord, his party's dealing with striking students and the possibility of bilingual schools. Arcand replied with his party's position on the status quo of Bill 101's English education access restrictions. He also joined NDG incumbent Kathleen Weil and others for a celebration of Pakistan in Laurier-Dorion, ate at the Blanche Neiges restaurant on Côte des Neiges Road and took in a soccer tournament by a Town of Mount Royal junior Quebec chamber of commerce group.
The Suburban also saw Arcand, as well as CAQ candidate Stefan Stanczykowski, at the Bangladesh memorial national day event for Sheik Mujibur Rahman, at Lavoie School Auditorium. The gathering commemorated the Aug. 15, 1975 assassination of Sheik Rahman, who was Bangladesh's founder and its president and prime minister.
No events listed for the QS's Marc-André Beauchamp or specific riding events for the PQ's André Normandeau on their respective party sites.
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In St. Laurent, Liberal incumbent Jean-Marc Fournier has also been busy. Late last week, among other visits, he appeared at the CSSS Bordeau-Cartierville-St. Laurent.
As has been happening in some other ridings, some of Fournier's posters along Côte Vertu were vandalized, with some featuring derogatory words.
PQ candidate Roger Gagnon's most recent activity was hosting a fundraising cocktail for his campaign at a local restaurant. No events listed for the QS's Marie Josèphe Pigeon. The CAQ's George Manolikakis is listing general party events on his Facebook page.n