Liberals down to 1 seat in western Quebec as CAQ enjoys near-sweep

The majority-winning Coalition Avenir Qubec(CAQ)picked upan extra seat in the Outaouais,dropping the Quebec Liberal Partydown to only one seat inthe region during Monday's night's provincial election.

Going into the election, the CAQ held three of five western Quebec seats, withthe Liberals occupyingthe other two. They were all Liberal before 2018's vote.

Now the CAQholds four of those five seats, with incumbent Andr Fortinlayingclaim tothe onlyregional seat still belonging to theprovincial Liberals.

"It means that they're going to have somebody who will always think about doing things differently," Fortin said afterhe was declared the victor inPontiac.

"Every time the government comes with their one-size-fits-all approach, there will be somebody to stand against that," Fortinsaid of his newfound status as regional Liberal outlier.

By the time Fortin spoke about an hour and a half after the polls closedthree other races in the region had been decided in favour of CAQ candidates:Mathieu Lacombein Papineau,Mathieu Lvesquein Chapleau and Robert Bussirein Gatineauall won withcommanding leads over their nearest competitors.

Like Fortin, all were incumbentmembers of Quebec's national assembly.

Candidate dedicates win to mom

Still, Fortin was hopeful his Liberal running mate and anotherincumbent,Maryse Gaudreaultin Hull, would help the partymaintain its shareof Outaouais seats.

It didn't pan out that way.

Although the race in Hull was quite close for some of the night, the CAQ's Suzanne Tremblayultimately won out overGaudreault.

TheQuebec Liberal Party had held the seat since 1981.

In her victory speech, Tremblay dedicated her successful campaign to her mother "who made me the woman I am today,"Tremblaysaid in French.

• CAQ sails to victory in Quebec with largest majority in decades

Tremblay wasn't the only winning CAQ candidate to lean on family during election day.

Lacombe whoserved as theminister of families before the election tweeted a video of his son offering him good luck as voters went to the polls.

"We're going to continue to work for the citizens, but we're going to continue to have fun, too," Lacombe said in French after his victory in Papineau.

"To be re-elected like this I think evenfeels better than in 2018."

'The work begins tonight'

Bussire, whose Gatineaudistrictis the largest in the region, said he's looking forward to completing projects that were begun or announced during the CAQ's first four years in power.

Among those projects is a promised new hospital in Gatineau.

"It's an enormous territory. I like to be present everywhere,"Bussire said in French, adding that he still enjoys the experience of knocking on doors.

Mathieu Lvesque, the CAQ's incumbent MNAin the electoral districtof Chapleau, was the first western Quebec candidate to learn he had reclaimed his seat on Monday.

"I thank the voters tonight. It's an honour to represent them," Lvesque said in French amid the clamour of celebrating party supporters. "The work begins tonight."

Asked about the CAQ's decisivemajority government, Lvesque said, "I'm without words."