Western Quebec's eastern-most riding feeling the Bloc surge

The Liberal Party has a fight on itshands to hang on to western Quebec's eastern-most ridingas polls suggest a surge in support for the Bloc Qubcois.

While polls show the Liberalsstill have a lock on most of the region, Bloc LeaderYves-FranoisBlanchetis actively courting voters in ArgenteuilLa Petite-Nation, a rural riding with a strong francophone majority and history of Blocsupport.

"That could be one that goes over to the Bloc," explained CBC poll analystEric Grenier. "It is the kind of seat the Bloc would be targetingif their numbers tick up to a high enough support."

Liberalcandidate Stphane Lauzon, a former teacher and Gatineau city councillor,took the riding from the NDP in 2015 and would like to hold on to it.

• The Liberals are struggling to hold their ground in small-town Quebec
• Liberals aiming to hang onto ArgenteuilLa Petite-Nation

"I won by 43 per cent of the vote," Lauzon said. "I feel people are still behind me."

But before that ArgenteuilLa Petite-Nation was Bloc country, from its inception in 1993 until it was swept up in the NDP's "orange wave" of2011.

It seems voters are now kicking the BQ tires once again, reflecting the rise in Bloc fortunes in the polls since the first French-language leaders' debate.

"The Bloc leader was very ... good," said Melanie Tardif, an employment consultantin Lachute, about 125 kilometres east of Gatineau.

Tardif said her mind isn't completely made up, but she's beendisappointed with the Liberals on local issues.

In particular, Tardifwas unhappy withlast week's news that Agropur has decided to shut itsdairy plantin Lachute, leaving 180 people out of work.

"Where are [the Liberals]?" Tardif asked. "I think people are ready to have change."

Social worker Yves Destroismaisons, the Bloc candidate in the riding, lost his bid to become mayorof Saint-Andr-Avellinin 2017, thenlost again as a candidate for theParti Qubcois in the 2018 provincial election to Coalition Avenir Qubec's Mathieu Lacombe. Destroismaisons is hoping the third time's the charm.

"I would like to make a difference in the riding," he said.

Blanchet dropped byLachute last Friday to support Destroismaison's bid. Standing beside the local candidate, he told a crowd the Blocwants "to be the conscience of the QuebecNational Assembly in Ottawa."

Destroismaisons said that message seems to resonate at the door, where the Bloc has championed Bill 21, the Quebec law that bans some public servants from wearing religious symbols while on the job.

According to polls, a majority of Quebecers supports the law, and people perceive the party's defence of it as a sign the Blocwill defend Quebec values in Parliament.

Despite the party's sovereigntist goals, Destroismaisons said he hopeseven federalists can appreciate that idea.

NDP candidate Charlotte Boucher Smoley had a late start to the campaign, but she said she's been canvassing in earnest, hoping to remind voters why they elected an NDP candidate in 2011.

She said the party's platform is resonating with local voters, with a focus on boosting pensions and housing, as well as investing in infrastructure to make the region more resilient to climate change and the flooding that comes with it. She saidshe's also encouraged by the growing support for NDPLeaderJagmeet Singh in the province.

But Quebec polls suggest Singh's popularity hasn't translated into the level of support needed to fend off the Bloc in many NDP-held ridings, let alone ones the party lost last election.

The Liberals had hoped to get a chance at some of those volatile NDP seats, but are now concerned about their own seats in ridings like ArgenteuilLa Petite-Nation.

"They had been counting on Quebec to deliver them a lot of seats to help them make up for losses in other parts of the country, but now it's more of a question of which seats they can prevent from going over to the Bloc," Grenier said.

One thing going for Lauzon and the Liberals is the fact that ArgenteuilLa Petite-Nation wasredistributed in 2015and now includes just 70 per centof the former riding of ArgenteuilPapineauMirabel, its eastern-most region.

At the same time, the riding gained30 per cent of the more federalist Pontiac riding to the west.

In Saint-Andr-Avellin, voter Alice Gratton-Blais saidwhile she's heard plenty of talk about the need for change, she craves political stability. That means supporting Lauzon's bid for re-election.

The other candidates inArgenteuilLa Petite-Nation are Conservative Marie Louis-Seize, the Green Party's Marjorie Valiquette and Sherwin Edwards of the People's Party of Canada.