Quebec Liberal Party candidate for Pontiac André Fortin held a campaign event in Shawville on Sunday. Fortin, the region’s MNA for the past three terms, is seeking re-election for his seat in the upcoming provincial election.
The well-attended event opened up with a few words from Mansfield-et-Pontefract mayor Sandra Armstrong, one of 12 Pontiac mayors to show Fortin their support on Sunday.
“I’ve known André for many years, and his leadership qualities are unmistakable,” she said in her opening remarks. “His leadership is outstanding. His dedication to the people of the Pontiac and the riding never wavers.”
Other notable attendees included Warden Jane Toller and mayors Roger Larose (Pontiac), Doris Ranger (Sheenboro), Sidney Squitti (Alleyn-et-Cawood), Raymond Pilon (Campbell’s Bay), Corey Spence, (L’Isle-aux-Allumettes), Joanne Ralston (Bryson), Valerie Twolan-Graham (Bristol), Jennifer Quaile (Otter Lake), Roger Lafond (Rapides-des-Joachims), Colleen Larivière (Litchfield), Donald Gagnon (Chichester), and former Shawville mayor Richard Armitage.
Fortin recalled his first time running to represent the Pontiac in the 2014 election.
“To know that I could count on your support then, I could count on your support throughout these years, and I could count on your support now, it means the world to me, it means the world to my family,” he said.
On the subject of this current election, Fortin spoke of the “economic uncertainty” stemming from U.S. administration as well as the likelihood of a Quebec referendum with the Parti Québécois leading in the polls.
“That’s where I focus my efforts in this campaign,” he said. “My terms are how you solve the problems that the international policy, that Quebec policy, that Canadian policy can cause on the lives of the people here.”
Fortin spoke on the need to support the agricultural industry and protect farmers, improve access to healthcare and have more nurses receive training through postsecondary education, and the need for satellite campuses so that more postsecondary students don’t have to move away from the region for school.
“I need you guys to push me [ . . . ] Push me on all things that we need the Pontiac to have to be better,” he said.
“It is a referendum election, but it is so much more than a referendum election,” he concluded. “It’s an election on what type of leadership you want. What type of direction do you want for the Pontiac?”
While other candidates in this election have held campaign events in the Aylmer area of the Pontiac riding, Fortin is the only candidate to have held one in MRC Pontiac.
