Voting day | “At least we will have done our duty”

It’s voting day, and The Press went to meet voters in four must-watch ridings in the greater Montreal area.

Frederik-Xavier Duhamel
The Press

It was quiet in the early afternoon at Collège André-Grasset, one of the polling stations in the riding of Maurice-Richard, in the north of the island of Montreal. Voters showed up a few at a time at regular intervals, about a hundred since the start of the day, according to an employee of Elections Quebec on the spot.

Suzanne has followed the campaign little, and she has made her choice for a while. What concerns her are “services to the population”, she says before entering to vote. Health, education? “All that,” she replies tit for tat. “Makes me, the tax cuts…” she continues, making it clear that she’s not impressed.

At the Marcel-Giroux Community Center in Verdun, a small queue was created in the morning, but it quickly disappeared, according to an employee.

It was important to vote for Johanne, who exercised her right in another office and is at the Community Center for other reasons. “If we don’t vote, I mean, we may criticize, but at least we will have done our duty,” she said.

Direction the South Shore. The Place-du-Commerce Street polling station in Brossard is by far the busiest on our itinerary. The tellers in the Laporte constituency are not idle, and turnover is fluid despite the configuration of the premises, which one official describes as “all crooked”.

Paul followed the campaign closely, and he spoke with his wife before making his choice. “When they talked about immigration, it touched me a lot,” he says, having himself immigrated to Quebec from Laos at the age of 7. He still cares about the words of Jean Boulet, CAQ candidate and former Minister of Immigration, who declared that 80% of newcomers do not work, do not speak French or do not adhere to Quebec values. “It shocked me,” he said as he left the office.

The choice was not easy for Tracey, met at the same place, and she decided recently. “I’m an Anglophone, it was difficult to make a decision,” she said. The most important thing was to choose “someone who will represent the English-speaking community,” adds the mother.

Last stop in the neighboring riding, Marie-Victorin. Samuel and Florence came to vote together at the Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue Cocathedral Museum in Longueuil. They “a little” followed the campaign, but they already knew who they were going to vote for. Their priority? “Especially the environment,” replies Florence, and Samuel agrees.

Polling stations are open until 8 p.m. Monday.