Do local campaign offices provide needed visibility for candidates during an election? The Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) is betting that they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you may have seen, the CAQ is doing things differently for many aspects of this campaign, including the use of offices by candidates,\u201d wrote Marc, the Southwest Montreal campaign organizer I contacted by email to ask about local campaign office addresses. \u201cInstead 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other parties, such as the Green Party and Option Nationale, don\u2019t 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: \u201cThe 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).\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Liberal, Parti Qu\u00e9becois 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.<\/p>\n
In Verdun, both PQ candidate Thierry St. Cyr and Liberal candidate Henri-Fran\u00e7ois 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\u2019s office is at 3852, St. Cyr\u2019s 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\u2019s also reaching Anglophones in the riding by participating in multi-party debates during the morning and noon hour programs on CBC Radio.<\/p>\n
The Comit\u00e9 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.<\/p>\n
In Marquette, Fran\u00e7ois Ouimet\u2019s campaign office at 61 45th<\/sup> Avenue in Lachine didn\u2019t open until the second week, with his launch party last Monday. Campaign Headquarters for Robert Po\u00ebti also opened the second week, at 7745 Blvd. Newman, LaSalle.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: This article appeared in the City version of the Wednesday, August 15 edition of The Suburban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do local campaign offices provide needed visibility for candidates during an election? The Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) is betting that they don\u2019t. \u201cAs you may have seen, the CAQ is doing things differently for many aspects of this campaign, including the use of offices by candidates,\u201d wrote Marc, the Southwest Montreal campaign organizer I contacted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-that-matter","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-eV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":857,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/week-one-2012election\/","url_meta":{"origin":925,"position":0},"title":"Provincial Election 2012, Week One","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"August 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Marquette, Marguerite-Bourgeoys and Verdun Ridings Potential voters in the Marguerite-Bourgeoys (LaSalle), Marquette (Dorval and Lachine) and Verdun ridings began seeing campaign posters from four parties before the election was called. In Verdun, the posters all show well-known candidates. Liberal Party posters in Marquette and Verdun show well-known incumbents who were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Island Report"","block_context":{"text":"Island Report","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/island-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Marquettesmall.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17358,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/verdun-election-heating\/","url_meta":{"origin":925,"position":1},"title":"Verdun by-election heating up","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"December 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"My article on the Verdun by-election appears on the front page of the Suburban this week. Six of the eight candidates met with residents for breakfast last weekend\u00a0at Baobab (4800 Wellington). The crowds were bigger for Liberal\u00a0candidate Isabelle Melan\u00e7on and CAQ candidate and former Verdun borough mayor,\u00a0Ginette Marotte. Local Richard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics That Matter"","block_context":{"text":"Politics That Matter","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/cultural-identity\/politics-that-matter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Verdunsmall.jpg?fit=300%2C293&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17350,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/ginette-marotte-caq\/","url_meta":{"origin":925,"position":2},"title":"One-time Liberal Former Mayor Runs for the CAQ","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Thursday and Friday, I got a chance to interview Ginette Marotte to ask her why she thinks Verdun residents should vote for her to represent them in the Quebec legislature. She spoke about her desire to re-enter politics after seeing Robert Poeti demoted. \"He's the most honest politician I've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics That Matter"","block_context":{"text":"Politics That Matter","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/cultural-identity\/politics-that-matter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15601,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/reluctant_federalist\/","url_meta":{"origin":925,"position":3},"title":"Reluctant Federalist Briefly Becomes Verdun Election Issue","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"March 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite announcements by election candidates about potential investments in schools (PQ), hospitals (Liberals), social housing (Quebec Solidaire and CAQ) and bridges (all parties), the person who got the most attention in the riding of Verdun last week was Mary Ann Davis. Davis is an Anglophone, a union organizer, a housing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Verdun"","block_context":{"text":"Verdun","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/verdunposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"marie ann davis_6479_1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/marie-ann-davis_6479_1-240x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15570,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/henri-francois-gautrin-retires\/","url_meta":{"origin":925,"position":4},"title":"Liberal MNA Henri-Fran\u00e7ois Gautrin Retires","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"March 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Liberal MNA Henri-Fran\u00e7ois Gautrin announced his retirement last Friday, February 28 after representing the Verdun for 25 years. I really appreciate the support of the Verdunites over these 25 years,\u201d he said in a later interview. \u201cI\u2019ve been very very happy to be the MLA during this period of time.\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LaSalle"","block_context":{"text":"LaSalle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/lasalleposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15991,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/commission-scolaire-de-laval\/","url_meta":{"origin":925,"position":5},"title":"Few care about French school board","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Most Laval voters qualified to vote for candidates in the Commission scolaire de Laval stayed away from the polls Sunday. No poll received more than 5% voter participation. This compares to a 7.9% voter turnout rate in 2007 and an 8.4% turnout rate in 2003. Most of those who did\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hundred Mile Circle"","block_context":{"text":"Hundred Mile Circle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/hundredmilecircle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Louise Lortie","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Lortie.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}