Latest news with #SylvieBérubé
CTV News
29-04-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Bérubé, Gull-Masty in see-saw battle for Nunavik where ‘confusion' led to some voters getting left out
Voters across Nunavut, Nunavik and the rest of Canada are voting today to elect a new federal government. (Cedric Gallant) Election day in Nunavik has turned into 'a whole bunch of confusion,' says one regional councillor. As the rest of Canada voted to elect a new federal government, in Nunavik one community's polling station still hadn't opened by late afternoon. Nunavik is part of Quebec's Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou riding, which takes up about a one-third of the province's map. The riding has a population of 89,087 and there are 65,833 registered voters, Elections Canada says. The riding has been represented by Bloc Québécois MP Sylvie Bérubé since 2019. At midnight, Liberal Mandy Gull-Masty had retaken the lead in a see-saw battle with Bloc Québécois MP Sylvie Bérubé. Gull-Masty had 7,577 votes compared to Bérubé's 7,290 and Conservative Steve Corriveau's 5,186. The NDP's Thai Higashihara had 517 votes. Nearly half of polls — 150 of 214 — had reported results. At 9:50 p.m., Elections Canada showed Bérubé leading with 655 votes over Gull-Masty's 594 votes and Conservative Steve Corriveau's 374, and New Democrat Thai Higashihara's 45. Fewer than five per cent of polls had reported. Another village saw its polling station closed after just two hours, while several other communities relied on a shared election staff to keep polling stations open for less than eight hours. 'We need help urgently,' Ivujivik Mayor Adamie Kalingo said in a phone interview. In his community of just over 400 residents at the northern tip of Quebec, the only polling station still hadn't opened as of 3:30 p.m. 'We have no election papers, or anything like that,' Kalingo said. 'I am trying to know what is going on.' He said that at election time, a plane or helicopter is supposed to deliver materials such as ballots and ballot boxes. A chartered plane did come in with Elections Canada workers on board, Kalingo said — but they didn't bring the election materials. He said he gave the Elections Canada workers his and his staff's phone numbers, adding he has corresponded with them. 'I don't know what else I can do,' he said. According to the Elections Canada website, polls in the eastern time zone including Nunavik are to be open Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. In a French interview late Monday afternoon, Elections Canada media representative Serge Fleyfel said he didn't have much information to offer. 'From what I know, planes were sent and polling stations were installed, but no one came,' he said, noting that in one instance a polling station was opened in a store but the store closed at noon. He said he was still unable to make contact with Luc Bédard, the election returning officer for Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou riding, as of 4:30 p.m. Monday. In Salluit, the polling station opened four hours late, then closed after just two hours. 'They told people who were in line at 2:30 p.m. that they were closing the poll because they had to get on the airplane,' Salluit regional councillor Stephen Grasser said in a phone interview, referring to the election workers. 'Since when do weather conditions trump the ability to vote?' Grasser said he intends to keep digging for answers, adding no messages were sent to the community to say when the polling station would open or close. 'A whole bunch of confusion,' is how he described the election day situation in Salluit. Mandy Gull-Masty, the Liberal candidate in the Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou riding, posted on Facebook saying five villages in Nunavik have local workers staffing polling stations: Aupaluk, Kangiqsualujjuaq, Kuujjuaq, Inukjuak and Kuujjuaraapik. She said the nine remaining communities have a 'travelling poll staff' that would run polling stations being open from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. This includes Akulivik, Kangirsuk, Puvirnituq, Quaqtaq, Ivujivik, Umiujaq, Salluit, Kangiqsujuaq and Tasiujaq. Elia Lauzon, who is originally from Kuujjuaq but is travelling to Puvirnituq for work, said she wanted to cast her vote but was turned away by poll workers at around 2:30 p.m. Lauzon said she was told by Elections Canada workers that they had leave in order to catch their flight home. 'It was done in a hurry,' she said in a phone interview. 'There was a whole host of people outside, people trying to go vote.' 'They are literally throwing our votes away' by closing the poll early, she said. 'It is the only way I get to participate in a democracy, supposedly, and I am not even able to do that because they wanted to fly out right away.' Lauzon said the workers told her they were concerned by the weather and wanted to leave while they could. She is staying at the hotel due to work, she said, and knows there were rooms available. 'They could have stayed overnight at least,' she said, adding numerous community members told her they were caught off guard by the polling station's unusual hours as they had planned to vote after their work shift ended.
Hamilton Spectator
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Liberal Mandy Gull-Masty ousts Bérubé to win Nunavik riding
Liberal Mandy Gull-Masty has won the Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou riding after a neck-and-neck race with incumbent Sylvie Bérubé that lasted into the early hours Tuesday. Gull-Masty received 12,256 votes, or 40.7 per cent of ballots cast in the Nunavik riding, after 213 of the 214 polls had reported. In second place was the incumbent, Bloc Québécois' Sylvie Bérubé with 10,296 votes or 34.3 per cent. Steve Corriveau of the Conservatives came third with 6,788 votes or 22.6 per cent, and the NDP's Thai Dillon Higashihara got 726 votes for 2.4 per cent. 'I think I am still in shock,' Gull-Masty said in a phone interview from Chibougamau's Maitre Renard Microbrewerie, where she celebrated her victory with her family, colleagues and neighbours. Throughout the night, Gull-Masty and Bérubé jockeyed back and forth for first place. By 1:30 a.m., Gull-Masty had unofficially dethroned Bérubé, who held the riding since 2019. 'It was really tough,' Gull-Masty said, admitting that travelling in a riding the comprises 50 per cent of all of Quebec was demanding. 'Doing this is probably one of the biggest challenges that somebody can undertake.' She said, 'I traveled everywhere, I made sure I was everywhere,' and noted she was the only candidate to have set foot in all regions of the riding. To be elected is one of the greatest honours for her, and she intends to return the honour by giving 'my ultimate capacity to serve everyone.' There were issues that plagued Nunavik election day . Akulivik and Ivujivik's polling stations did not open, while other communities faced reduced polling hours. An Election Canada representative cited difficult weather conditions and problems with hiring local staff. No further information was provided Monday about the state of the elections in Nunavik, and what it all might mean for people who didn't get the opportunity to cast a ballot. Gull-Masty said she reported the inconsistencies to Elections Canada. 'There is going to be a report, there is going to be an investigation,' she said. 'I am now elected, and this is one of my huge concerns.' She said she has been paying attention to what is going on in the North and the needs of Nunavimmiut. 'There is a lot more work to do to address the realities and the disconnection of Nunavik,' she said. 'Far too long have [Nunavimmiut] been ignored, and this will no longer be the case.'
Hamilton Spectator
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Bérubé, Gull-Masty in see-saw battle for Nunavik where ‘confusion' led to some voters getting left out
Election day in Nunavik has turned into 'a whole bunch of confusion,' says one regional councillor. As the rest of Canada voted to elect a new federal government, in Nunavik one community's polling station still hadn't opened by late afternoon. Nunavik is part of Quebec's Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou riding, which takes up about a one-third of the province's map. The riding has a population of 89,087 and there are 65,833 registered voters, Elections Canada says. The riding has been represented by Bloc Québécois MP Sylvie Bérubé since 2019. At midnight, Liberal Mandy Gull-Masty had retaken the lead in a see-saw battle with Bloc Québécois MP Sylvie Bérubé. Gull-Masty had 7,577 votes compared to Bérubé's 7,290 and Conservative Steve Corriveau's 5,186. The NDP's Thai Higashihara had 517 votes. Nearly half of polls — 150 of 214 — had reported results. At 9:50 p.m., Elections Canada showed Bérubé leading with 655 votes over Gull-Masty's 594 votes and Conservative Steve Corriveau's 374, and New Democrat Thai Higashihara's 45. Fewer than five per cent of polls had reported. Another village saw its polling station closed after just two hours, while several other communities relied on a shared election staff to keep polling stations open for less than eight hours. 'We need help urgently,' Ivujivik Mayor Adamie Kalingo said in a phone interview. In his community of just over 400 residents at the northern tip of Quebec, the only polling station still hadn't opened as of 3:30 p.m. 'We have no election papers, or anything like that,' Kalingo said. 'I am trying to know what is going on.' He said that at election time, a plane or helicopter is supposed to deliver materials such as ballots and ballot boxes. A chartered plane did come in with Elections Canada workers on board, Kalingo said — but they didn't bring the election materials. He said he gave the Elections Canada workers his and his staff's phone numbers, adding he has corresponded with them. 'I don't know what else I can do,' he said. According to the Elections Canada website, polls in the eastern time zone including Nunavik are to be open Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. In a French interview late Monday afternoon, Elections Canada media representative Serge Fleyfel said he didn't have much information to offer. 'From what I know, planes were sent and polling stations were installed, but no one came,' he said, noting that in one instance a polling station was opened in a store but the store closed at noon. He said he was still unable to make contact with Luc Bédard, the election returning officer for Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou riding, as of 4:30 p.m. Monday. In Salluit, the polling station opened four hours late, then closed after just two hours. 'They told people who were in line at 2:30 p.m. that they were closing the poll because they had to get on the airplane,' Salluit regional councillor Stephen Grasser said in a phone interview, referring to the election workers. 'Since when do weather conditions trump the ability to vote?' Grasser said he intends to keep digging for answers, adding no messages were sent to the community to say when the polling station would open or close. 'A whole bunch of confusion,' is how he described the election day situation in Salluit. Mandy Gull-Masty, the Liberal candidate in the Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou riding, posted on Facebook saying five villages in Nunavik have local workers staffing polling stations: Aupaluk, Kangiqsualujjuaq, Kuujjuaq, Inukjuak and Kuujjuaraapik. She said the nine remaining communities have a 'travelling poll staff' that would run polling stations being open from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. This includes Akulivik, Kangirsuk, Puvirnituq, Quaqtaq, Ivujivik, Umiujaq, Salluit, Kangiqsujuaq and Tasiujaq. Elia Lauzon, who is originally from Kuujjuaq but is travelling to Puvirnituq for work, said she wanted to cast her vote but was turned away by poll workers at around 2:30 p.m. Lauzon said she was told by Elections Canada workers that they had leave in order to catch their flight home. 'It was done in a hurry,' she said in a phone interview. 'There was a whole host of people outside, people trying to go vote.' 'They are literally throwing our votes away' by closing the poll early, she said. 'It is the only way I get to participate in a democracy, supposedly, and I am not even able to do that because they wanted to fly out right away.' Lauzon said the workers told her they were concerned by the weather and wanted to leave while they could. She is staying at the hotel due to work, she said, and knows there were rooms available. 'They could have stayed overnight at least,' she said, adding numerous community members told her they were caught off guard by the polling station's unusual hours as they had planned to vote after their work shift ended.
CBC
17-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Here's where federal candidates stand on issues facing Eeyou Istchee
Here's what federal candidates have to say about their promises if elected to represent the Abitibi-Baie James-Nunavik-Eeyou riding, and more specifically, Eeyou Istchee. The Abitibi-Baie James-Nunavik-Eeyou riding is one of the largest electoral districts in Canada. CBC spoke with candidates in the riding, focusing specifically on their past accomplishments and plans for Eeyou Istchee. There are four candidates vying to represent the Abitibi-Baie James-Nunavik-Eeyou riding in Parliament. Sylvie Bérubé is running for the Bloc Québécois, Mandy Gull-Masty for the Liberals, Thai Dillon Higashihara for the NDP, and Steve Corriveau for the Conservatives. Sylvie Bérubé has served as MP of the riding since 2019. She says she aims to improve food security for Indigenous communities and address issues like border safety, transportation, and climate change. She said, despite Quebec Premier François Legault advocating to speed up the environmental review process for new mining and energy projects, protecting the environment comes first for her. "We don't want [LNG] here. We don't want carbon pollution either. We want a consensus on the environment, that's what we're asking for," she said. "For food security, in the Indigenous communities of northern Quebec it's very important, it's central to their values. So we have to act quickly for the environment." When asked whether she had visited Eeyou Istchee during her five years as Member of Parliament, she answered instead that she went to Nunavik twice. She says she isn't sure if she will visit Eeyou Istchee during the campaign, due to a limited budget. "I started in 2019 and then there was the pandemic which lasted two and a half years. So we weren't able to travel. But afterward I went to Nunavik, to Aupaluk, Bérubé," she said. During the 2021 election, Sylvie Bérubé receieved only 4 percent of the votes from Eeyou Istchee, according to Elections Canada. Just over 45 per cent of her votes came from the Jamésie and Abitibi-Témiscamingue regions. Liberal candidate, Mandy Gull-Masty, says she intends to invest her time in speaking to elected members of their communities to hear about their specific needs. She was the first woman to hold the position of Grand Chief in Eeyou Istchee. She resigned from this position to run in the federal election. "There are so many things going on at the national scale that people need to pay attention to, but there's also a regional portrait of what we need to see here within the riding," said Gull-Masty. If elected, she says her priorities are to build stronger relationships with Anishinaabe, Cree, Inuit, and francophone leaders in the regional riding while addressing their needs in Parliament. "We share this space, we share this territory, we share this riding," said Gull-Masty. "We can have a stronger plan for the territory. And I think that you need that kind of voice in Ottawa to represent you, do the work for you and push your file." Thai Dillon Higashihara is a recent political science graduate from the University of Toronto. He stepped in as the NDP candidate for Abitibi-Baie James-Nunavik-Eeyou after the original candidate withdrew for personal reasons. "I think it's a shame that the government hasn't done enough to help revitalize language infrastructure in the area," said Higashihara Higashihara's decision to represent this riding is influenced by his grandfather, who helped build infrastructure in Oujé-Bougoumou, a small community in Eeyou Istchee. "I think a lot of focus in this riding has been really centred around Val-d'Or and French culture, which is really important," said Higashihara. However, Higashihara has not yet visited Eeyou Istchee since the beginning of his campaign. "The lack of real representation and real work in northern infrastructure. I think that the NDP has a huge strong record in delivering that," said Higashihara. Steve Corriveau, the Conservative candidate in the riding, declined an interview with CBC North's Cree unit. Election day is April 28.
CBC
11-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Meet the federal candidates running in Nunavik
Social Sharing Canadians will head to the polls on April 28, and Nunavimmiut and other Quebec voters will cast their ballot to decide who will represent them in Ottawa. Nunavik is part of Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou, the third-largest riding by area in the country. The riding encompasses many different cultures, including Naskapi, Anishinaabe, Cree, Inuit and francophone, and each community has its own unique stories and challenges. Four people are running in Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou, for the Bloc Québécois, Conservatives, Liberals, and NDP. The Green Party previously named a candidate but the party has since confirmed that Simon Paradis didn't secure enough signatures to be on the ballot. No replacement has been named. CBC spoke to three of the four candidates who are running in Nunavik. Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc Québécois Bloc Québécois candidate Sylvie Bérubé is seeking reelection for a third term as MP for the northern Quebec riding. She declined a request for interview in English with CBC North. The riding has been a Bloc Québécois stronghold. The party has held the seat for more than half of the last 25 years. In 2019, Bérubé was the first woman to be elected in the riding. Before entering politics, she worked for 32 years in the health-care system, where she was the former director of the social committee at the Val-d'Or Hospital and administrator of the Taxibus Corporation for public transportation. As MP, she was the Bloc Québécois critic for family, children and social development until very recently. Speaking to Radio-Canada, Bérubé said she believes the Bloc has been a defender of Quebec's interests in Parliament amidst increasing aggression from the U.S. She also sees herself as an involved person who has worked with several organizations across the region. Steve Corriveau, Conservative Conservative candidate Steve Corriveau is running in the riding for a second time. Originally from Val-d'Or, Corriveau is quick to say he has no priorities for Nunavik, because he says there are already local organizations, like Makivvik and the Kativik Regional Government, who've outlined issues affecting their communities. "Who am I to arrive here and decide that this priority would be better than another one already set by those already elected?" Corriveau said. "So me, once elected, I will take the phone. I will call all those people and say, 'what can I do on the federal matters that I could help you with,' and I will bring that to Ottawa." He said he recognizes the challenges with building housing in the North – with higher costs and more logistics involved – and he wants to work on that. "Down here [in southern Quebec], we would not accept the conditions that you guys up north are living," he said. If elected, Corriveau said he plans to travel to all of Nunavik's communities, so he can meet the people he represents, and said he'll enter those conversations with an open mind and respect. "When I was a young boy, my parents told me that whenever you want respect in life, you must first show respect," he said. Mandy Gull-Masty, Liberal Liberal candidate Mandy Gull-Masty was the first female grand chief of the Cree Nation Government in Quebec. She resigned as grand chief on March 27 to run in this federal campaign. Her asset, she said, is her ability to build relationships with different communities and leaders, which she has done in her previous role. She said those meetings will be the first step for her in her campaign. "Doing that legwork is really the first step – speaking to people who live in the different communities, asking them where are the gaps not only in representation, but where are the gaps in service," she said. From the conversations she's had so far, she said she's heard about a desire for action on climate change, economic development, and hunting rights for Inuit. That also leads to food insecurity, which she said she noticed having once lived in northern Quebec. Her husband is from Whapmagoostui, which is adjacent to the Inuit community of Kuujjuarapik. "Immediately [I had] concerns with access to food, ensuring that they're able to have, you know, some kind of subsidy to bring down the cost of living," she said. "And now more so than ever, seeing the potential of what new tariffs can cause for us … we have a lot of natural resources, but the expense of living here is quite high." Thai Dillon Higashihara, NDP Entering the race late was the NDP's Thai Dillon Higashihara. The party had previously named Catherine Louie Leblanc Oweetaluktuk, who then dropped out for personal reasons. Since January, Higashihara has been working as the NDP's digital organizer based in Ottawa, but he has personal connections to the region. He said his grandfather had a role in the creation of Oujé-Bougoumou, a Cree settlement in northern Quebec. Higashihara said he's having conversations with people across the region to better understand their needs, and he's starting with his grandfather's community. Infrastructure, fulfilling the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations, and protecting Indigenous languages are some of his priorities. "I think there needs to be a better push for Indigenous languages actually being protected, codified and legally," he said. "There should be a legal space to protect Indigenous languages, much like [how] the French and English languages have been done across Canada." He believes the diversity of the region – and the many different perspectives – will be beneficial in finding a solution to common problems like housing and the cost of living.
