Do local campaign offices provide needed visibility for candidates during an election? The Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) is betting that they don’t.
“As you may have seen, the CAQ is doing things differently for many aspects of this campaign, including the use of offices by candidates,” wrote Marc, the Southwest Montreal campaign organizer I contacted by email to ask about local campaign office addresses. “Instead of waiting for citizens to come see them, our candidates are out there reaching out to them in order to explain the CAQ’s propositions. The office in St-Henri is the CAQ headquarters so it is not open to the public.”
Other parties, such as the Green Party and Option Nationale, don’t have the money for local headquarters. Option Nationale has set up a central Montreal campaign office that is open to the public at 2017 St-Denis. The Green Party are focussing on social media and other local efforts, as outlined by John Symon, the candidate running for the Green Party in Marquette: “The Greens are running a very low budget campaign and most of my contact with voters will be by glad-handing at local malls, door-to-door campaigning, a few dozen Coroplast election signs, some brochures, and through Facebook (Parti vert du Quebec Marquette).”
Meanwhile, Liberal, Parti Québecois and Quebec Solidaire candidates have rented roomy local offices with space for a reception and several cubicle offices for campaign volunteers. Many held launch parties to officially open their local campaign offices this past week.
In Verdun, both PQ candidate Thierry St. Cyr and Liberal candidate Henri-François Gautrin had their offices set up and ready to go the first week, while Chantale Michaud, the Verdun candidate for Quebec Solidaire opened hers the second week. All three are located on Wellington Street: Gaurtrin’s office is at 3852, St. Cyr’s office is at 3782 and Michaud’s office is at 4019. Michaud’s office has an extra touch because three artists are displaying their work on her walls. She’s also seen at various community events that were set up prior to the election call. Gautrin has also been spending time visiting church parishes and attending concerts to meet locals. St. Cyr has already sent a pamphlet about his ideas to everyone in Verdun. He’s also reaching Anglophones in the riding by participating in multi-party debates during the morning and noon hour programs on CBC Radio.
The Comité des citoyens et citoyennes de Verdun, le Centre des femmes de Verdun et Casa C.A.F.I. are organizing a candidate’s debate for Wednesday August 29th at La Casa C.A.F.I. 4741 Verdun Street.
In Marquette, François Ouimet’s campaign office at 61 45th Avenue in Lachine didn’t open until the second week, with his launch party last Monday. Campaign Headquarters for Robert Poëti also opened the second week, at 7745 Blvd. Newman, LaSalle.
Note: This article appeared in the City version of the Wednesday, August 15 edition of The Suburban.
