NDP candidate speaks out on womens' behalf

"It's time for a change here in Westmount-Ville-Marie," said Lagacé-Dowson to roaring applause from her supporters after being introduced by fellow NDP female candidate in the Gatineau riding, Françoise Boivin.

Dowson spoke about her visit to various areas of the riding earlier in the morning, highlighting how she met with womens' groups such as CHANCE, and observed the presence of "serious poverty enclaves in the area," which are too often ignored due to misconceptions that poverty does not exist in the riding.

Dowson was introduced by Boivin, an ex-Liberal MP who made light of her previous affiliation, claiming that "everyone makes mistakes." Given how sceptical a person she was, Boivin said, she was impressed with how the NDP were able to convince her to jump ship.

Dowson said it was a difficult decision for her to run, being the mother of two young children. However, when her 7-year old one day asked her what would happen when there were no more fish left in the ocean, she could not resist anymore. "I need to be able to look her in the eye and say I've done something," she said.

Along with former NDP party leader Alexa McDonough, an MP from Halifax, Nova Scotia who was also present on Thursday, Lagacé-Dowson made the point that the Liberals had not been tough enough of an opposition to the Conservatives. "In the last term, there were 43 confidence votes, and the Liberals voted with the Conservatives on all of them," Dowson later told The Monitor.

Lagacé-Dowson and McDonough made little of the Liberal Green Shift plan, stating it focused too much on taxing individuals rather than going after "big emitters" of greenhouse gas. Lagacé-Dowson said the NDP's green plan was much better, since it was based on a cap and trade system. In other words, companies that pollute less than others would receive credit from their efforts, and enterprises that cannot bring their pollution levels down would have to purchase the above-mentioned credit from the greener companies or face penalties.

Questioned on Lagacé-Dowson's chances of succeeding in the Westmount-Ville-Marie riding, McDonough did not seem too worried about the area's overwhelmingly Liberal-voting history. "People will respond to a positive alternative," she said. When she ran for MP in her Nova Scotia riding, McDonough was told the NDP would never win, she recalled, and that did not prove to be true.