CAQ's Shirley Dorismond to win byelection in Marie-Victorin, CBC projects
CBC
The CBC Decision desk projects the CAQ's Shirley Dorismond to win the Marie-Victorin electoral district on Montreal's South Shore on Monday, indicating that Premier François Legault remains popular in Quebec despite criticisms over how he has led the province through the pandemic.
Marie-Victorin, located in Old Longueuil, has been a Parti Québécois (PQ) stronghold since its creation in 1980.
The PQ ran star candidate Pierre Nantel, a former parliamentarian who flew the New Democratic Party banner for two terms, but he was unable to clinch the win.
The byelection was held to replace the PQ's Catherine Fournier who stepped away from provincial politics to take the reins as mayor of Longueuil.
Fournier was elected as a PQ MNA in a 2016 byelection, and then to a full term in 2018. She left the party in 2019 to sit as an Independent.
But Fournier didn't dominate in 2018, a first for the riding as she beat her CAQ opponent Martyne Prévost by only 705 votes.
The Liberals have only managed to win the provincial riding once, in 1984, in a byelection, and hung onto it for a year.
According to the CAQ, Dorismond grew up in Old Longueuil and attended Gérard-Filion high school.
She has a bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Ottawa and a certificate in gerontology from the University of Montreal.
She has a professional background in health care, including work with people suffering from addiction.
She served as vice-president of a union in the health sector, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ).
In a Facebook post on Monday, Dorismond said the most important thing to her is listening to people's concerns and being "on the ground."
"If I am elected, rest assured that I will continue this work to represent you well in the National Assembly," she wrote. "Doing more, doing better, will be my daily life for you!"
The CAQ maintains a majority, now with 75 of the 125 seats in the National Assembly. The next provincial election is expected to be this fall.
