The election campaign is just a few weeks old, but Robert Libman has been campaigning for quite a while.
Libman was involved in a lengthy process for the Conservative nomination in the Mount Royal riding, one the Tories believe they may be able to wrest from the Liberals.
He was up against Pascale Dery, a former TVA journalist, and it was quite a fight, but he won. He’s taken the team he assembled during that campaign and is using it for this campaign – the race to become the riding’s representative in the House of Commons. He opened his campaign office Thursday, which is on Decarie Blvd. at Vezina St.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s first stop after calling the election was to the Mount Royal riding, and while Libman says that was a vote of confidence, he and his team have their work cut out for them.
“It puts a lot of pressure on to us win the riding, there’s high hopes for us in this riding. It takes a lot of work, we have to roll up our sleeves and do our ground game and make sure we get out the vote. Every vote counts – this [riding] has been Liberal for 75 years. To win it will be close. We have to make sure our voters come out to vote,” he said.
It appears to be a two-party race -- he's up against Anthony Housefather, who is running for the Liberals, another well-known politician in the area as mayor of Cote St. Luc.
Libman says he's knocking on doors and hearing themes that are concerning voters here: security, the economy, and in some cases, Israel. The Tories’ support of Israel has given the party more prominence in this riding.
Their vote share greatly increased in the last election and there is the belief that the Conservatives for the first time could win a riding here on the island of Montreal.
