Charlesbourg: a swing riding to watch

QUEBEC CITY – The spotlight is on PQ candidate Dominique Payette just hours before the election call. PQ leader Pauline Marois has chosen to rally in her riding of Charlesbourg as news media from across the province watch on.

Marois’ presence alongside Payette is no coincidence. Charlesbourg is a swing riding and one of the keys to winning a majority government. The PQ is putting its trust in Payette, a university professor with a big name.

“I know it’s very important to some people, especially elder people who know my mother quite well,” she told Global News.

Payette is the daughter of former PQ minister Lise Payette, an extremely popular writer who was part of René Lévesque’s team back in the 70s and 80s.

Now the younger Payette is trying her hand at politics.

“I decided that it was time for me to serve,” she said.

But she has a lot of work to do. Charlesbourg is a smorgasbord of young and old, wealthy and poor, perfectly unfaithful to one party. The riding voted PQ in 1998, Liberal in 2003, ADQ in 2007, Liberal the following year and has since embraced the CAQ.

“I’ve been involved in this riding for years,” said CAQ candidate Denise Trudel.

Trudel was city councilor before she became an MNA. She’s well known in the riding.

But the arrival of Pierre Karl Péladeau has thrown her for a loop. The media mogul polarized the sovereignist-federalist vote in the Quebec City region to the benefit of Philippe Couillard’s Liberals.

“People talk to me about the radicalization of the Parti Quebecois,” said Liberal candidate in Charlesbourg, François Blais. “They tell me they’re afraid of another referendum.”

Whether Charlesbourg falls into Liberal hands this time around remains to be seen. The riding is as unfaithful as it is unpredictable. The PQ hopes Payette — even with her past criticism of Péladeau and his Quebecor empire — will inspire enough hearts to allow Marois to make inroads in the region.