Legault runs for Liberals

Brigitte Legault is the federal Liberal Party's candidate for the Vaudreuil-Soulanges riding.

Raffy Boudjikanian

raffy.boudjikanian@transcontinental.ca

The federal Liberal Party's Vaudreuil-Soulanges riding association president Brigitte Legault will have bigger shoes to fill soon, as she has just been announced as the area's candidate for upcoming elections.

"I looked at the support, I looked at my team," said the long-time Liberal party activist, "we accepted the offer (by party chief Stéphane Dion), and I decided to run."

The riding includes off-island municipalities such as Vaudreuil-Dorion, Hudson, Pincourt, Rigaud, Notre-Dame-de-L'Île, L'Île-Perrot and St. Lazare. A 2006 Statistics Canada census shows populations are on the increase in many of these cities. St. Lazare shot up 32 per cent, and Vaudreuil-Dorion's rose by 29 per cent.

"It's growing," admitted Legault, saying she expects the maintenance of road infrastructure to become key in the area as more and more people off-island and use roads everyday to commute to Montreal for work.

However, she said she sees two key issues for Vaudreuil-Soulanges electors. The first is the restoration of the Soulanges Canal, a project which has been lingering for a long time. The Canal, which runs along several of the off-island municipalities, is viewed by several of them as a key future tourism development project, but its walls, locks, bridges and remaining infrastructure are in need of renovation. "We need to give the final push for that project," said Legault.

Legault's other priority is to get rid of the roughly 2 million containers that dot a yard alongside Highway 20 West that used to belong to CP.

Legault said she hopes to start a round of talks with electors in the area soon, in order to clarify some of the lingering questions on their minds about the Liberals' recently announced Green Shift plan. "I think the plan needs more explanation," she told The Chronicle.

"Yes, we're going to be taxing on carbon," she admitted, but she said rival party spin is trying to make voters forget that, under Green Shift, they would also receive tax breaks in other areas, such as payroll.

Legault said she expects the Conservative Party to put the same kind of spin it has been applying nation-wide on Vaudreuil-Soulanges voters, but she is not afraid. "I have no problem with that," she said.

Vaudreuil-Soulanges is currently held by Bloc Québecois MP Meili Faille, though it has had an overwhelmingly Liberal history prior to her 2006 win. That year, Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau ran for the Liberals and finished in second place with 28.44 per cent of the vote.

Conservative Party Senator and Minister of International Trade Michael Fortier has announced he intends to run in that riding for his party.