A construction contractor who challenged Quebec's labour laws and a federal public servant fired for heading a sovereigntist group will both try to dethrone the Liberals in one of their Outaouais strongholds in the March 26 Quebec election.
Jocelyn Dumais is running for l'Action Démocratique du Québec in the riding of Chapleau, which includes part of Gatineau.
Dumais gained a high profile while he fought for more than a decade against a Quebec law that forces construction workers to belong to a union. He took his battle all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, but lost.
Parti Québécois candidate Edith Gendron, who has made headlines herself in recent years, will be one of Dumais's opponents.
Gendron was fired from her job at the Department of Canadian Heritage in 2004 after being elected president of the sovereigntist group Le Québec, un Pays, which her employer deemed a conflict of interest.
In March 2006, the Public Service Labour Relations Board ruled that Gendron had been improperly fired and asked the government to give her back her job.
Chapleau Liberal since inception
Gendron and Dumais will fight Liberal Benoît Pelletier, who was elected in 1998 and 2003, for the seat held by the Liberals since Chapleau became a new riding in 1981.
Gendron is campaigning for another referendum on Quebec sovereignty. Dumais says people are tired of hearing the three-decades-old debate on the subject.
Quebec pollster Jean-Marc Leger said Dumais may make the race interesting.
"A lot of people will vote for them [the ADQ] because they don't want to vote for the two other parties," he said. "It will be the first time we have a three-way race since the '30s."
A party spokesman said last week that the ADQ plans to run in all five Outaouais ridings, but as of Thursday, Dumais was its only candidate in the region.
Corrections and Clarifications
- Benoît Pelletier is running for re-election in Chapleau and Norm MacMillan is running for re-election in the riding of Papineau. It was originally reported that MacMillan is running in Chapleau. Chapleau has been held by the Liberals since 1981, not 1989 as originally reported. Feb. 26, 2007|12:07 p.m. ET
Related
| Party | Elected | Leading | Total | Vote Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LIB | 48 | 0 | 48 | 33.08% |
| ADQ | 41 | 0 | 41 | 30.80% |
| PQ | 36 | 0 | 36 | 28.32% |
| QS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.65% |
| GRN | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.89% |
| OTH | 0 | 0 | 0 | .26% |
| Last Update:March 27, 12:52:21 AM EDT | ||||
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