André Fortin has been reelected for his third term as MNA for the riding of Pontiac. Not only was Fortin the only member of the Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) elected outside the greater Montreal area, but also one of the few non-CAQ MNAs to represent a largely rural riding.

Upon winning on October 3, Fortin said: “I’m incredibly thankful for and humbled by the trust that Pontiacers have put in me. Serving and representing the people who saw you grow up and who shared their values is something very special to me.

Pontiacers deserve the same level of service as anyone else in the province. Pontiacers also deserve a representative who will fight for these services, as well as for their rights. I will always defend their rights and their services in the face of governments who chose to cast them aside.

As a priority, we will work on improving our healthcare services by . . .

paying our healthcare professionals a comparable wage to Ontario. That is the one issue that came up time and again across the region. It needs to be addressed now.”

Fortin also sat down with THE EQUITY for a post-election interview on how he and the QLP plans to approach the National Assembly now that it has an even larger CAQ majority.

“We met for the first time this week in with the newly elected [QLP] MLAs and there’s a lot of new faces,” said Fortin. “I think half the caucus is made up of newcomers, which is a good thing. It indicates party renewal and maybe a new strategy, a new way of doing things and a new approach to the legislature.”

On how Fortin will represent issues faced in the Pontiac to the government while in opposition, he said:

“Being in government is not a guarantee that your files move ahead and being an opposition is not a guarantee that your files don’t. Most ministers understand their role is to make decisions for all of Quebec and therefore are very approachable in terms of getting things done in their portfolio, no matter if it’s in Pontiac or in Papineau.”

Fortin also said that he believed that CAQ’s actions are driven by media coverage, so through being a public voice that draws attention to issues he can spur government action.

Fortin was then asked for the prospect of progress on two specific commitments he made during the election, enursing the more healthcare professionals are recruited to the area and allowing anglophone students to attend school in Otter Lake instead of being bussed to Shawville.

On healthcare Fortin said:

“The positive thing is that it’s not I’m not alone in calling for more health care professionals in our hospitals; Outaouais doctors made an unprecedented coming out during the election campaign, urging whoever forms government to take very seriously the issues at hand on staffing because we are at risk of losing additional services if nothing is done. So we do have a number of allies on this file who are advocating in the same direction and stating that message to government that we do need to find a local strategy.”

Fortin said that he is hopeful that the CAQ will follow through with their commitments increasing the salaries of Healthcare workers in the Outaouais.

On allowing anglophone students to attend school at École primaire Ste-Marie alongside francophone students on a model similar to the one used in Campbell’s Bay, Fortin said:

“It definitely will require some discussions with the Western Quebec School Board and the Centre de services scolaire des Hauts-Bois-de-l’Outaouais to get everybody working collaboratively on the same page. It’s always a bit more difficult with the CAQ government when it comes to language issues but that’s definitely among the top priorities for me in the region.”

Fortin was then asked how he planned to approach being one of the few opposition MNAs to represent a rural riding in the province.

“Well, the beauty of it is that there won’t be too much competition to be a leader of rural issues on the broad opposition benches,” said Fortin. “The thing with rurality is often that it suffers from the one size fits all approach. It’s not always tailored to the reality of individual rural areas, whether it’s ours or somewhere else. And so to have that reality in contrast to a government that tends to do one size fits all approaches really does give me a lot of leeway to put forward the priorities and the impacts of government policy in an area like ours.”

Fortin also says he plans to work with other MNAs from other parties and past Liberal MNA to ensure he has a more expansive grasp of the issues on a province-wide level.

According to Fortin, who served as Official Opposition House Leader in the last National Assembly, he has yet to be assigned his upcoming role in the Liberal caucus.

“Regardless of the file, Pontiacers can be assured that I’ll continue to be a strong voice in the assembly and that the words I choose in the assembly will be representative of the interest of the people in the Pontiac,” he said.

Fortin also commented on the current trajectory of the Quebec Liberal Party and how they plan on appealing to a broader base of Quebec voters going forward, given the party’s seats are currently confined to areas with large anglophone populations.

“Every party goes through highs and lows, has periods of time where their electoral base is the core of their seats and times where they get to expand that,” said Fortin. “ For us, the electoral results are a very clear indicator of the need to think about issues maybe in a different way to connect with people in regions of the province and with francophones, but to never do it by compromising our values and the rights and services that minority groups in Quebec, anglophones or allophones, expect and require.”

Finally, Fortin also commented on the calls for electoral reform which have been voiced by other political parties in the aftermath of the election.

“For the results of this election, every party knew the electoral system that we had and chose to allocate resources accordingly. So, it’s hard to question the results of the election, but it does force us to rethink the system going forward and to have discussions on whether there are better approaches, or not, to our system. In my mind, there is something to being a local representative elected by local people in a riding that isn’t so sizeable that you cannot meet with constituents or represent their interests. But at the same time, there is some also something to a system that allows every vote to count. So those are discussions that we hope to have going forward. It’s unfortunate that the premier is already in the first days after the election shut the door to amending or to considering amending the system.”

Fortin concluded the interview by saying:

“I want to thank every single one of the 12,477 Pontiacers who put their trust in me once again. I hope to live up to their expectations and the needs of this region and promise to carry their voice with me to Quebec City to defend their interest, but mainly to be a local, accessible, hard working MNA.”

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