In the end, Henri-François Gautrin won by 524 votes. The final poll didn’t come in until 12:25:41 on Wednesday morning.
Gautrin, the Liberal incumbent who has held the Verdun riding since 1994, beat Thierry St Cyr, with the Parti Québecois, who was projected to win the riding all night. Gautrin got 11,877 votes to St. Cyr’s 11,353. There were 47,694 people eligible to vote in Verdun.
Gautrin, who was Deputy Government House Leader when the election was called, clearly won over those who attended a debate on Nun’s Island when he described in detail how he acted to build a new primary school on Nun’s Island. He didn’t attend a debate on the mainland, which was set up by local community groups.
St. Cyr tried to stay anonymous when he voted in Crawford Park just after 10 am Tuesday morning, but he had a good profile after representing the borough federally for five years as a Member of Parliament for Jeanne-Le-Ber. He also participated on weekly debates on CBC Radio Noon. During the campaign, he spent a lot of time emphasizing his support for Quebec separation from Canada.
The electoral riding of Verdun has existed since 1965. This year, 47,694 people registered to vote. Eighteen percent of them voted in the advance polls, which was slightly more than the Quebec average of almost 17%.
André Besner, the Coalition Avenir de Québec candidate, came in third with some 13% of the vote.
Chantale Michaud, the Quebec Solidaire candidate worked in the public sector for thirty years before retiring and becoming active in various community groups locally increased her support from some 5% last election to 7% this time.
Jeffrey Mackie achieved 2% for the Green Party and Marc-Antoine Daneau got 1% for the Option Nationale.
Philippe Refghi, a Concordia student who was among 20 people speaking in favour of a strong Quebec in a United Canada for the Québec Citizens’ Union got less than 1%, as did Eileen Studd, who ran for the Marxiste-Leniniste Party.
