Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

Westmount—Ville-Marie

This central Montreal seat had been empty for nearly nine months by the time voters went to the polls. Lucienne Robillard, who had held it for the Liberals since 1997, stepped down effective 25 January 2008; a by-election was set for 8 September and then wiped out when the writs for a general election were issued the day before. The riding takes in the City of Westmount, Old Montreal, the southwestern part of downtown, the student quarter running north from Sherbrooke Street to avenue des Pins, and the part of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce east of Hingston Avenue.

Candidates

Marc Garneau (Liberal) — Born in Quebec City on 23 February 1949, Garneau took an engineering physics degree at the Royal Military College and a doctorate in electrical engineering at Imperial College London, then served at sea as a combat systems engineer, reaching the rank of captain before leaving the navy in 1989. On 5 December 1983 he was named one of Canada's first six astronauts, chosen from more than 4,300 applicants, and on 5 October 1984 became the first Canadian in space aboard Challenger. Two further flights, in 1996 and 2000, brought him to 677 hours off the planet; he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in December 1984 and joined the Canadian Space Agency's executive in February 2001, going on to run it. Garneau lost in Vaudreuil-Soulanges in 2006 and had been the confirmed Liberal candidate here since October 2007.

Anne Lagacé Dowson (NDP) — A familiar voice to Montreal radio listeners, Lagacé Dowson had hosted CBC programs including Radio Noon and Home Run. She took a leave from the broadcaster to campaign, first for the cancelled by-election and then for the general election.

Guy Dufort (Conservative) — A Montreal lawyer with Heenan Blaikie practising in litigation, labour and employment, and Aboriginal law, Dufort led the Progressive Conservative Party's Quebec wing from 1994 to 1999, under both Jean Charest and Joe Clark, and presided over the 2003 assembly that folded the party into the Conservative Party of Canada. He had run federally once before, in Hull—Aylmer in 2000.

Charles Larivée (Bloc Québécois) — The youngest candidate in the field, Larivée held a social science diploma from Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf and a political science degree from McGill, where he had led several student organizations including the campus sovereigntist party. He worked in business development and logistics for a family-run food trading company.

Claude William Genest (Green Party) — Son of the actor Émile Genest and a Montrealer by birth, Genest created and hosted the television series Regeneration – The Art of Sustainable Living, nominated in 2008 for a New England Chapter Emmy. He taught permaculture at the University of Vermont, founded the Green Mountain Permaculture Institute, and was named one of two Green Party deputy leaders in November 2006. In April 2008 he was among the first Canadians trained by Al Gore to deliver the An Inconvenient Truth presentation. He had run in Jeanne-Le Ber two years earlier.

Judith Vienneau (neorhino.ca), Linda Sullivan (Marxist-Leninist), Bill Sloan (Communist) and independent David Sommer Rovins completed the ballot.

About the Riding

Almost no other riding in the country packs this much variation into so little ground. Westmount's stone houses and mature streets sit against downtown office towers, the rooming houses and apartment blocks of the McGill student quarter, and the restored warehouses of Old Montreal. McGill and Concordia both fall inside the boundaries, as do the Montreal General Hospital and a dense cluster of arts organizations, and the local economy leans on finance, professional services, higher education, health care and culture. Language and income split from block to block: Westmount remained substantially English-speaking, the downtown core drew residents from everywhere, and the student districts skewed young and transient.

That cultural sector gave the campaign a sharp local edge. News of roughly $45 million in federal cuts to arts and culture programs, including PromArt and Trade Routes, broke in mid-August and came up repeatedly on doorsteps here. Housing costs, downtown construction disruption and the tourism trade in Old Montreal rounded out the local agenda.