Candidate Anna Gainey, who is close to Justin Trudeau’s circle, won Monday night’s three-way race for the Liberal nomination in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount district, released by former Minister Marc Garneau. The concerns of the activists who came to the polls centered on “respecting the rights” of Anglophones.

Even before the count was known, many of them were already applauding and cheering at the end of a short speech the candidate delivered at around 5 p.m. in a Westmount church, two hours before the end of voting.

Anna Gainey learned that she had won the nomination just after 8:30 p.m. to thunderous applause from dozens of activists who had come to attend the publication of the voting results.

“It’s really a great honor to be selected as a Liberal candidate in this campaign,” said Frau^Me Gainey, who was President of the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) from 2014 to 2018. “I’m ready to get to work tomorrow,” she added in a short speech, mostly in English, after the results were announced. She then hugged her daughter before leaving the scene without speaking to the media.

Anna Gainey, daughter of former Montreal Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey, was the most prominent candidate for this nomination. The mother of three had also received public support from liberal tenors in recent days, most notably Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and Minister for Crown-Indigenous Relations Marc Miller.

M^Me Gainey will therefore represent the PLC in the June 19 by-election in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount constituency. That seat has been vacant since former Transport and then Foreign Minister Marc Garneau announced his retirement from politics last March.

Three candidates

M^Me However, Gainey faced a formidable opponent, Fred Headon, who on Monday shook hands with many of the activists who voted for him. He has held numerous positions at Air Canada since 2006 before becoming the company’s vice president and general counsel for labor law last year.

For the PLC volunteer since 1988, however, this investiture was a first attempt at running for election. “I told myself I had achieved that goal in my career,” Mr. Headon began smiling, just hours before the result of that investment was announced. The economic vitality of the sector and the integration of immigrants are among his priorities, he stated in an interview.

Jonas Fadeu was certainly the least known candidate for this investiture. There was also a deep silence on stage, while the room opposite was being voted on. Mr Fadeu, strategic adviser to the Minister of Finance, tried his luck as a Liberal candidate in the La Pointe-de-l’Île constituency in the last general election. However, it was Bloc Québécois Mario Beaulieu who won a third term.

“Montreal needs to be represented by the people who live there,” Mr Fadeu said in an interview, stressing the importance of increasing the representation of visible minorities in the House of Commons. “We have to make sure black MPs represent the people. »

Rights of Anglophones

That investiture came on the same day that Bill C-13 passed almost unanimously in the House of Commons on Monday night. The document will thus continue on its way to the Senate before officially becoming Canadian law.

However, this bill, which proposes the first reform of the official language law since 1988 and creates a new law on the use of French in companies under federal jurisdiction, has been criticized by several liberal activists. Marc Garneau himself had criticized him for the past few months, saying he was violating the rights of Anglophones in Quebec.

“Anglophones are really concerned about this. “The problem is that government shouldn’t tell people how to live their lives,” argued David Taylor, a liberal activist who exercised his right to vote at the inauguration.

In the language of Shakespeare, other activists also met The duty expressed similar concerns Monday night. “The challenges of the English-speaking community are there. It’s true that she feels a little overwhelmed. But I have great hope that we will be able to restore a situation where everyone is comfortable, everyone is respectful and the language issue is resolved in a way that everyone likes,” said Fred Headon.

In an interview, he stressed the importance of establishing programs to ensure “the vitality of the English language” in Quebec. “A language that has no culture dies. »

With Boris Proulx

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