The Liberals were stunned by the gains they made in Quebec's hostile ridings
OTTAWA — When Elections Canada certified the Liberals' victory by a single vote in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne, senior party officials were stunned.
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'This wasn't in our forecast. We didn't think she would win,' admitted a Liberal source about the party's candidate, Tatiana Auguste, the 24-year-old who thought she had lost the constituency.
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Auguste was initially declared the winner on election night, but she later lost the riding to Bloc Québécois incumbent Nathalie Sinclair Desgagné, who attended her party's first caucus meeting last week, before winning it again by a single vote after a judicial recount.
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'I've been on an emotional roller coaster, but I'm really happy,' Auguste said in multiple media interviews. But for Quebec Liberal organizers, her victory showed how much the big red Liberal machine has outperformed in the province.
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In the end, the Liberals won 44 of the 78 ridings, double the Bloc's 22 seats in the House of Commons. Before the recount in Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore and Terra Nova—Les Péninsules and Milton East—Halton Hills South, Terrebonne, and numerous surprise victories in Quebec, brought the Liberals to 170 seats, two short of a majority.
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Terrebonne hadn't voted Liberal in 45 years. The same goes for Trois-Rivières. The last time the Liberals won Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou was in 2000, and they had never won Beauport—Limoilou in Quebec City since its creation in 2004.
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They won all four of them.
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'It's surprising. Absolutely… I've always been skeptical because these are often ridings that have promised the Liberals but often failed to deliver,' said Jeremy Ghio, a former advisor to minister Mélanie Joly and a strategist at Tact Conseil.
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'These have always been regions in which the Liberals had high expectations and ultimately suffered disappointment at the end of the campaign,' he added.
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Ghio and many Quebec Liberal sources believe Prime Minister Mark Carney will have to give significant roles to the province's representatives and bring fresh Quebec faces at the cabinet table.
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For instance, people suggested to the prime minister's entourage that Mandy Gull-Masty, who was recently the Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Crees/Cree Nation Government before winning Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, should be named in cabinet.
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Ghio believes it is time for the prime minister to appoint longtime Quebec MP Joël Lightbound to Cabinet after his resounding majority in Louis-Hébert.
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'You need a minister in Quebec City. And it's time for Lightbound to join the cabinet. He worked his riding. He broke rank during the Trudeau years. He is not associated with Trudeau,' said Ghio.
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During the campaign, the Liberal team deployed key ministers like Mélanie Joly, François-Philippe Champagne, and Steven Guilbeault in more than ten ridings where the party thought it had a chance of success.
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