Anna Gainey

Gainey, Miller, and Guay add to the Liberal West End wave

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

This was a tight election, but with few surprises on the Island of Montreal.

Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Westmount, Lasalle-Emard-Verdun, and Ville-Marie-Le Sud-Ouest-Île-des-Sœurs had all been Liberal strongholds until last September. Liberal MP David Lametti tendered his resignation in 2023 after being shuffled out of cabinet. He went into private practice. The Liberals ran former city councillor Laura Palestini against Craig Sauve for the NDP, Louis Ialenti for the Conservatives, and Louis-Philippe Sauve for the Bloc. The riding went Bloc.

But last Monday night Liberal Claude Guay took back the riding, winning with 50.7 percent of the vote, or 20,920 votes. Sauve did come in second with just 21.3 percent, or 10,446 votes. The Conservatives’ Zsolt Fischer ran third.

The Conservatives haven’t held a riding on the Island of Montreal since 1988. If they had any hopes of winning one, Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Westmount was not going to be it.

Incumbent Anna Gainey took the riding with 63.9 percent of the vote, or 34,116 votes. Conservative candidate, former federal Ministerial Chief of Staff Neil Drabkin received 10,517 votes, 20.1%. The NDP’s Malcolm Lewis-Richmond received 3,954 votes amounting to 7.4%. By the time Monday’s results had come in Gainey was on her way to Ottawa for meetings.

There was no surprise in the Ville-Marie-Le Sud-Ouest-Île-des-Sœurs where incumbent Marc Miller – Immigration Minister until last Month – held onto his riding with 58.3 percent of the vote, or 10,571 votes. Conservative Steve Shanahan in second place with 22.1 percent, or 4009 votes. n

Gainey, Miller, and Guay add to the Liberal West End wave Read More »

Election 2025: NDG – Westmount

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

The election posters went up the night before Prime Minister Mark Carney paid his visit to Governor-General Mary Simon to kick off the 2025 election campaign. But in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount riding posters for only one candidate went up, that of Liberal incumbent Anna Gainey.

The riding has always been a Liberal stronghold.The current boundaries are fairly new, created in 2012 when federal ridings were redistributed. It encompasses the towns of Westmount and Montreal West, along with the neighbourhood of NDG, part of the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough, with a bit of the Ville Marie borough thrown in (the historical block of Îlot-Trafalgar-Gleneagles).Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount is a majority Anglo riding.

Gainey won the riding in the by-election held on June 19, 2023, which was held to replace Marc Garneau who had resigned the previous March.For the past year Gainey has been on the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group, the Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Group, the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association, the Canada-United Kingdom Inter-Parliamentary Association, and the Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Group.

In the last few elections the NDP had come in behind the Liberals, with the Conservatives consistently in third place. Mathew Kaminski, who had run for the Conservatives in both the 2021 election and the 2023 by-election, told The Suburban that he will not be running. Sources confirmed to The Suburban, days later, that Neil Drabkin will be running against Gainey. His name began to appear on the party’s website and social media shortly after.

Drabkin had run in the riding before, going up against Garneau in 2011 and 2019. He had also run as a Progressive Conservative in 1993 in the Mount Royal riding. He is a lawyer and political commentator, with plenty of political experience as Chief of Staff in the federal government to then Ministers Stockwell Day and Joe Oliver, and had been senior policy and legal advisor to former Multiculturalism and Citizenship Minister Gerry Weiner.

Malcolm Lewis-Richmond will be running for the NDP.

Félix-Antoine Brault is the Bloc Quebecois candidate.

The Green Party has consistently come out ahead of the Bloc Québécois, except in 2021 when Jordan Craig Larouche beat Sam Fairbrother for fourth place.

Alex Trainman Montagano is once again running as an independent. n

Election 2025: NDG – Westmount Read More »

Benefit of new NDG housing project questioned

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

The Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough will be the beneficiary of a $71 million loan from the federal government for housing, but affordable housing activists say it’s not for the kind of housing the borough needs, right now.

Ottawa’s Apartment Construction Loan Program will be investing in Exal NDG, an apartment complex to be built at 7300 Saint Jacques at West Broadway (across from the new RONA+).

Steven Mackinnon, Minister of Labour and Seniors, made the announcement on the site of the future project, along with Notre-Dame-de-Grâce – Westmount MP Anna Gainey, on behalf of Housing Minister Sean Fraser.

Mackinnon said “our government is ensuring that Quebec families have access to a safe, affordable home. Today’s announcement marks another step in our work to end Canada’s housing crisis once and for all.”

“This new housing,” Gainey added, “will benefit middle-class individuals and families while stimulating the local economy.”

Housing advocacy group FRAPRU – Le Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain – took issue with that announcement, stating that “the Trudeau government is still relying too heavily on the private market to solve the housing crisis and, in so doing, is contributing to unaffordability.” FRAPRU says that the government is using public funds “to finance housing that is totally unaffordable for the average tenant.”

The apartment complex is supposed to be ready by next summer, with prices ranging from $1,080 for a studio to $2,390 for a three bedroom. According to the loan program’s own requirements, at least 20 per cent of the apartments have be available at a monthly rate of 30 per cent of the average income of area households. The rents quoted are higher than that, based on the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s own date from last year.

Exal NDG is to be a five-storey complex with 207 units “with high-end finishes,” according to the website. Housing groups say the affordability criteria doesn’t take into account the actual average income for renters — the disparity is a bit higher than 50%. n

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