Emmanuella Lambropoulos had already done the hard part – getting her name on the ballot.
On Monday night, the 26-year-old political neophyte, who stunned observers by winning the Liberal nomination in Saint-Laurent riding last month, easily sailed into the House of Commons.
With all 182 polls reporting, Lambropoulos won with 59 per cent of the votes, well ahead of the Conservatives at 20 per cent.
Voter turnout, based on an electoral list not including electors who registered on election day, was 27.5 per cent.
The byelection was called after longtime Member of Parliament Stéphane Dion quit politics.
It was an hour after polls closed at 9:30 p.m. before TV networks declared her the winner, but the result was clear from the count of the first polling station.
Saint-Laurent is one of the safest Liberal seats in the country. In the last election, Dion garnered 62 per cent of the vote, winning by almost 17,000 votes.
Lambropoulos was swarmed by supporters chanting “Emma, Emma” when she arrived at an election-night party in a restaurant at the Place Vertu shopping centre just before 11 p.m.
“During the campaign, I said I wanted to defend the middle class and believe me that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” she told the crowd. “I will be a champion for Saint-Laurent families.”
Speaking to reporters later, Lambropoulos said she was overwhelmed by her victory.
“I’m sure it’s going to hit me a little later,” she said. “It’s an amazing feeling – I’m really happy that Saint-Laurent residents spoke out, they wanted a local candidate, somebody who they felt has lived through similar experiences, somebody they felt that they could connect with.”
Lambropoulos won the nomination in a race that was supposed to be a fight between two other people, both veteran politicians – Alan DeSousa, the long-serving mayor of St-Laurent borough, and Yolande James, a high-profile former Quebec cabinet minister.
But the party rejected DeSousa, refusing to allow him to run – or even tell him why he was being rebuffed. And at the party’s March 8 nomination meeting, Saint-Laurent Liberals also roundly rejected James, who was said to be the party establishment’s choice. James came third.
Instead, party members chose Lambropoulos, a French and history teacher at Rosemount High School.
A St-Laurent native, Lambropoulos – who speaks English, French and Greek – has roots in the multicultural riding. Half of the Montreal borough’s residents are members of visible minorities, and 81 per cent were either born outside Canada or have a parent who was born abroad.
“I just worked really, really hard,” Lambropoulos said. “Every single day I went door to door. I didn’t let anything stop me. Even though I was running against big names I didn’t let that stop me. I just knew that if I had some perseverance, I could come through.”
She told supporters and campaign workers that “the work we have accomplished over the past few weeks is formidable, yet we do not have the luxury to rest. We must build on the momentum of this election and expand our movement to include every citizen in every corner of the riding.
“Together we can truly achieve a new level of community togetherness of mutual understanding, and of unity.”
Lambropoulos, who served on the riding’s Liberal executive for seven years, said she was proud to have worked with Dion, who taught her that “listening and defending constituents is the raison d’être of an MP.”
Lambropoulos also reached out to supporters of other parties.
“We may have different views on how to maximize Canada’s potential but no one should ever doubt the love, the patriotism and the mutual respect that unite us under our maple leaf flag,” she said.
“Whether you supported the Conservative Party, the NDP, the Green Party or the Bloc Québécois, I will be an MP for all of you.”
DeSousa, St-Laurent borough mayor since 2001, has said that in selecting Lambropoulos as their candidate, Saint-Laurent voters were thumbing their noses at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his party.
He suggested local party members were angry at Trudeau for unceremoniously dumping Dion from cabinet in January, and at the party for disallowing DeSousa’s nomination.
The other candidates in the Saint-Laurent byelection were: businessman Jimmy Yu of the Conservative Party, who came second in the riding in 2015; New Democrat Mathieu Auclair, a student in international relations; William Fayad of the Bloc Québécois; environmental activist Daniel Green of the Green Party; and Chinook Blais-Leduc of the Rhinoceros Party.
Dion was MP for the area since 1996, winning seven times in the riding of Saint-Laurent-Cartierville, and then again in 2015, when it became Saint-Laurent riding.
Four other federal byelections were held on Monday – two in Alberta (Calgary Heritage and Calgary Midnapore) and two in Ontario (Markham–Thornhill and Ottawa-Vanier). Voters in all five byelections stuck to the script, giving the Conservatives wins in the two Calgary ridings and backing the Liberals elsewhere.
In Markham-Thornhill, Liberal hopeful Mary Ng had 51 per cent of the vote, although her closest rival, Tory candidate Ragavan Paranchothy, was making a strong showing with 39 per cent.
In Ottawa-Vanier, the Liberals were also leading: Mona Fortier had 52 per cent of the vote, while the NDP candidate, Emilie Taman, had 29 per cent.
In the Alberta ridings of Calgary Heritage and Calgary Midnapore, formerly held by Stephen Harper and Jason Kenney, respectively, the dominance of the Conservatives was unmistakable.
In Heritage, Bob Benzen was leading with 71 per cent, trailed by the Liberals’ Scott Forsyth at 22 per cent, while in Midnapore, Stephanie Kusie was running away with the vote at 77 per cent.
Source: montrealgazette.com