CBCnews

Stars not aligning?

A new poll shows Tory minister Michael Fortier is lagging way behind the Bloc. La Presse/Crop published a poll today looking at six individual ridings.

Political Bytes

Emmanuel Marchand

Fortier is trying to take the riding of Vaudreuil-Soulanges from the Bloc, but, according to this poll, he is 28 points behind rival and current MP Meili Faille.

Fortier quit the Senate to seek a seat in the House of Commons. He is also the Minister of Public Works and the minister with responsibility for the greater Montreal area.

But according to the poll, Bloc MP Faille, is proving very popular. She took the riding away from the Liberals in 2004. She then faced and beat Liberal star candidate Marc Garneau in 2006.

The poll suggests Faille has 49 per cent support, Fortier has 21 per cent, and the Liberal candidate, Bigitte Legault, has 15 per cent support.

The poll also suggests Liberal Justin Trudeau has a six-point lead over current Bloc MP Vivian Barbot in the riding of Papineau.

The NDP’s Thomas Mulcair is also ahead in Outremont. He has a 10-point lead over Liberal candidate Sebastien Dhavernais. The Liberals are hoping to take back Outremont that had long been one of their safest ridings in Quebec.

Bloc MP Serge Ménard shouldn’t have any problem keeping his riding of Marc-Aurèle-Fortin. He has a comfortable 26 per cent lead over closest rival, Tory candidate Claude Moreau.

Another riding the Conservatives were hoping to win this time is Rivière-des-Mille-Iles. Tory candidate, Claude Carignan, is a popular mayor in the area north-west of Montreal. But he is trailing by ten points to Bloc candidate Luc Nesnoyers.

A similar poll yesterday also showed Tory minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn is way behind the Bloc in his riding of Jonquière-Alma. He says even though he doubts the poll is accurate he has canceled a tour of Quebec to help other Tory candidates. He plans to spend the rest of the election campaigning in his own riding.

Emmanuel Marchand