Claude Guay

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