NDP Leader Jack Layton, cool, calm and collected among a crowd of comrades at a town hall in Sudbury on April 1, 2011.Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
The federal New Democrats believe their next breakthrough in Quebec will come just across the river from Ottawa.
Jack Layton took his campaign bus to a maple-sugar bush in the Aylmer area, west of Hull, Sunday to profile two candidates.
Nycole Turmel, a former president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), is running in the riding of Hull-Aylmer, the home of many of the bureaucrats who staff federal government offices. And Francoise Boivin, who once held Gatineau-Hull for the Liberals, is now the candidate in that riding for the NDP.
"We have the best candidates," Mr. Layton told reporters after having brunch with about 200 supporters that featured fiddlers and an accordionist playing traditional Quebec folk songs.
"When you talk about Francoise Boivin and Nycole Turmel, I think it would be agreed by a great number of people in the Outaouais that this is a marvellous team to speak up for the people here in the House of Commons."
Polls over the past two years suggest that the New Democrats have become a true federalist option for Quebecers.
In 2007, the party, which had been practically a fringe element here for many years with the support of about 2 per cent of voters, took a seat in a by-election in Montreal. Thomas Mulcair, who is still the NDP's only Quebec MP, won again in the general election in 2008.
Building support in Quebec is a "growth process," said Mr. Layton. "We believe in running uphill. That's our party, we always run uphill."
And although it is his face on the campaign bus and his name on the plane, Mr. Layton said his party believes in running as a team.
Ms. Boivin ran for the New Democrats in 2008 and came within 1,500 votes of the Bloc Quebecois winner, Richard Nadeau.
The New Democrats did not fare as well in Hull-Aylmer, however. Liberal victor Marcel Proulx, was more than 9,000 votes ahead of the NDP candidate in 2008 when the New Democrats came third behind him and the Liberal candidate.
So a win here for the New Democrats would seem to be a long-shot, even with a candidate like Ms. Turmel.
Mr. Proulx's website accuses her of supporting Bloc Quebecois candidates in previous elections, saying that means she also supports Quebec sovereignty, which would lead to a loss of federal jobs in the region.
But the New Democrats said it is false to say Ms. Turmel has ever been a sovereigntist.
"I am federalist," she told reporters on Sunday. "I believe in value for people. When I was (PSAC) president, it just responds to what Mr. Layton said, I worked with everybody, especially those who were on side with social values."
On Monday Mr. Layton said he will make an important announcement about retirement security. He also takes his campaign bus to the riding of Elgin-Middlesex-London where last week his candidate Ryan Dolby quit and gave his support to the Liberals to mount a greater attack against Stephen Harper's Conservatives.
Mr. Layton will hold a rally with his new candidate, Fred Sinclair, the former riding association president who stepped in to fill the vacancy.
Mr. Dolby said last week that he intended to call Mr. Layton to apologize for his surprise departure. Mr. Layton said Sunday he had received a text message from his former candidate to that effect.
"We have the best candidates," Mr. Layton told reporters after having brunch with about 200 supporters that featured fiddlers and an accordionist playing traditional Quebec folk songs.
"When you talk about Francoise Boivin and Nycole Turmel, I think it would be agreed by a great number of people in the Outaouais that this is a marvellous team to speak up for the people here in the House of Commons."
Polls over the past two years suggest that the New Democrats have become a true federalist option for Quebecers.
In 2007, the party, which had been practically a fringe element here for many years with the support of about 2 per cent of voters, took a seat in a by-election in Montreal. Thomas Mulcair, who is still the NDP's only Quebec MP, won again in the general election in 2008.
Building support in Quebec is a "growth process," said Mr. Layton. "We believe in running uphill. That's our party, we always run uphill."
And although it is his face on the campaign bus and his name on the plane, Mr. Layton said his party believes in running as a team.
Ms. Boivin ran for the New Democrats in 2008 and came within 1,500 votes of the Bloc Quebecois winner, Richard Nadeau.
The New Democrats did not fare as well in Hull-Aylmer, however. Liberal victor Marcel Proulx, was more than 9,000 votes ahead of the NDP candidate in 2008 when the New Democrats came third behind him and the Liberal candidate.
So a win here for the New Democrats would seem to be a long-shot, even with a candidate like Ms. Turmel.
Mr. Proulx's website accuses her of supporting Bloc Quebecois candidates in previous elections, saying that means she also supports Quebec sovereignty, which would lead to a loss of federal jobs in the region.
But the New Democrats said it is false to say Ms. Turmel has ever been a sovereigntist.
"I am federalist," she told reporters on Sunday. "I believe in value for people. When I was (PSAC) president, it just responds to what Mr. Layton said, I worked with everybody, especially those who were on side with social values."
On Monday Mr. Layton said he will make an important announcement about retirement security. He also takes his campaign bus to the riding of Elgin-Middlesex-London where last week his candidate Ryan Dolby quit and gave his support to the Liberals to mount a greater attack against Stephen Harper's Conservatives.
Mr. Layton will hold a rally with his new candidate, Fred Sinclair, the former riding association president who stepped in to fill the vacancy.
Mr. Dolby said last week that he intended to call Mr. Layton to apologize for his surprise departure. Mr. Layton said Sunday he had received a text message from his former candidate to that effect.