Saganash’s orange surge sweeps northern Quebec

Tooma Etok casts a ballot in Kangiqsualujjuaq May 2. The federal riding of Abitibi-James Bay-Nunavik-Eeyou went to NDP candidate Romeo Saganash, who won 45 per cent support. (PHOTO BY PASCAL POULIN)

In a dramatic orange-coloured upset in Quebec’s northernmost riding, New Democratic Party candidate Romeo Saganash ousted Bloc Québecois incumbent Yvon Lévesque to take Abitibi-James Bay-Nunavik-Eeyou.

The timing proved just right for the first-time candidate, a prominent Cree leader and lawyer who had been courted by all the federal parties — save for the Conservatives — over the last few years.

Saganash won with 45 per cent of the vote, a stunning increase from the eight per cent vote the New Democrats received in the riding in the 2008 federal election.

The Bloc’s Lévesque, who has held the seat since 2004, ended the night in third place with 18 per cent – down from nearly 40 per cent in 2008.

Conservative candidate and Senneterre mayor Jean-Maurice Matte trailed behind Saganash with 23 per cent, while Liberal candidate Léandre Gervais finished with 11 per cent.

The Green Party’s Johnny Kasudluak took four per cent, up from Green Party’s three per cent in 2008.

The voter turnout overall in the riding was 53 per cent.

Reached at his home in Inukjuak, Kasudluak wished Saganash the best in his new job, adding that he hopes the new MP will be “more present and more accommodating” to the region of Nunavik.

“I’ll be keeping en eye on him to make sure he delivers on his promises,” Kasudluak said.

Amid the NDP surge that swept Quebec Monday night, Liberal candidate Léandre Gervais told reporters in Val d’Or that “we weren’t expecting that, we’ve been hit by an orange tsunami.”

The same orange tsunami won the NDP 58 of Quebec’s 75 seats and knocked out Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, who announced his resignation late Monday night.

In Toronto, jubilant NDP leader Jack Layton delivered a speech to supporters, promising a new and energetic party prepared to give a boost to public health care, small business and Canadian families.

“You can count on us building a new relationship with aboriginal and First Nations people,” Layton told the crowd.

The race in Abitibi-James Bay-Nunavik-Eeyou got off to a rocky start for incumbent Lévesque when he was quoted in a Quebec newspaper saying few would vote for the NDP because the party was running an aboriginal candidate.

Three-quarters into the campaign, a poll showed the riding’s four main candidates to be locked a four-way race, with Lévesque slightly ahead of the Conservative candidate and Saganash as a close third.

But Saganash had one of the best chances of unseating the long-time MP.

The Cree leader, originally from Waswanipi, emerged as one of the NDP’s star candidates even before the party’s popularity in Quebec began to swell.

Saganash has a long history in regional politics. He worked for the Grand Council of Crees since the early 1980s, was elected as deputy grand chief in 1990.

For more than 20 years, Saganash was involved with developing the United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous People.

In Kuujjuaq last week, Saganash touted the riding as the future of Quebec, in terms of resource development, aboriginal-government relations and climate change.

Saganash will be the first Quebec Cree to sit in the House of Commons; where he has promised to give his first speech in Cree.

“The Cree are really proud,” he said in an interview last week. “They think I can do the job.”