Did Vegas vacationer Brosseau falsify nomination papers?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/05/2011 (5555 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TROIS-RIVIERES, Que. — There is plenty of grumbling in semi-rural Quebec about the new local MP — and not just because she lives 300 kilometres away, didn’t visit the riding to campaign, can’t speak much French and spent part of the election vacationing in Las Vegas.

The latest grumbling is about Ruth Ellen Brosseau’s nomination papers. Her opponents suggest they may have been falsified and say the riding results should be nullified if that is the case.

A man in the Berthier-Maskinonge riding says he was stunned to see his name and address listed on the papers filed by the NDP campaign, when he doesn’t recall giving his support.

The name of Rene Young’s wife, Lise Leblanc, is there too, except her name is misspelled and the signature was clearly forged, he added.

“Lise Leblanc is written there — but Leblanc without a C,” Young said in his living room in Trois-Rivieres, at the eastern end of the riding.

“I don’t think an adult would make a mistake in her name.”

He said he was told by a reporter that names of some of his neighbours were also listed, even though they allegedly never signed the form.

No other complainants have come forward.

The NDP has dismissed allegations of irregularities and says the signatures were collected normally, by volunteers going door to door and working local gathering spots.

Some party members are also expressing frustration that one candidate is distracting from the dozens of quality MPs elected in the province Monday — many of them with impressive academic and professional backgrounds.

But Brosseau has become a poster child for critics who say the party was not prepared for the serious role it is about to play in Quebec, and in Canada’s Parliament.

The front page of one Quebec tabloid Wednesday carried a photo of the Las Vegas strip, a picture of Brosseau and the headline: Still Invisible.

The NDP insists she isn’t ready to make a public appearance just yet. Brosseau won the riding by a crushing margin, despite her absence from the hustings.

Now one local voter who supported the NDP is having buyer’s regret.

Ghislaine Tessier said she voted NDP because she likes leader Jack Layton, not because of the local candidate. She also says Brosseau could always learn French.

It’s the fact her new MP has never been to the riding that, Tessier said, annoys her.

“We elected someone who’s not even present and who didn’t campaign at all — there’s a problem,” said Tessier, a teacher.

Asked about allegations that the signature of one of her neighbours might have been falsified — she lives across the street from Young — Tessier said: “It’s not getting off on the right foot.”

Her friend, Marcel Pratte, said a byelection should be called immediately if the signatures were indeed falsified.

“What she’s done is like a slap in the face,” he said.

 

— The Canadian Press