Quebec scraps plan to eliminate Manon Massé's riding after protests

Quebec is scrapping a plan to eliminate the Montreal riding of Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques, which is currently represented by Québec Solidaire MNA Manon Massé.

​The proposal sparked protests and a petition from residents concerned about losing their voice at the National Assembly.

The decision was announced Thursday by the Directeur général des élections du Québec (DGEQ), Quebec's chief electoral officer. The proposal was part of an attempt to update the electoral map to better reflect the province's population distribution. 

Massé called the decision a victory for the people living in the riding, which includes parts of the Ville-Marie and Plateau-Mont-Royal boroughs.

"Once again, people have found a way to get their message across. Through poetry, songs, mobilizations, the street and petitions," Massé told supporters Thursday.

Key Anglo riding also left intact

The chief electoral officer also decided to retain the riding of Westmount-Saint-Louis, where 37 per cent of residents claim English as their mother tongue.

The plan had been to tack the western part of Westmount onto the riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, with eastern Westmount absorbed into a newly created downtown riding.

However, the anglophone advocacy group, the Quebec Community Groups Network, said that would effectively mean one less seat in the National Assembly representing the anglophone community's interests. 

• Proposed new electoral map an 'attack' on the Anglo vote, lobby group says

The DGEQ did decide to go ahead with a plan to merge the ridings of Mont-Royal and Outremont into a single riding, Mont-Royal-Outremont. 

Those two ridings are currently held by Liberals, Pierre Arcand and Hélène David.

Crémazie named for 'Rocket Richard'

The organization also announced it would change the name of the provincial riding of Crémazie to Maurice-Richard.

The hockey legend lived in the riding for close to 50 years.