Some facts and figures about the federal riding of Saint-Leonard—Saint-Michel
Saint-Leonard-Saint-Michel
This Liberal stronghold located within Montreal’s historic Italian community wasn’t supposed to be a riding to watch. Since its creation in 1988, the riding has only been represented by Liberals of Italian origin. For this election, however, the Liberals had nominated an engineer and former imam named Hassan Guillet, whose 2017 eulogy during the funeral service for the six men shot dead in a Quebec City mosque received worldwide attention. But in late August the party booted Guillet after the Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith found some of the candidate’s old social media posts it described as anti-Semitic. In his place, the Liberals nominated city councillor Patricia Lattanzio, a member of Montreal’s Italian community. The Conservatives stuck to tradition and nominated Ilario Maiolo, a Montreal lawyer of Italian descent. It remains to be seen whether voters in Saint-Leonard—Saint-Michel have had enough political drama and want to turn towards another party. If they do, it would deliver a blow to the Liberals’ image as the party of multiculturalism.
Population: 113,212 (2016 census)
Major communities: the borough of St-Leonard; parts of the boroughs of Villeray–St-Michel–Parc-Extension and Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie.