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Ann Gingras’ improbable liberal candidacy | Elections Canada 2021

The relationship between the Liberals and the former president of the central council of the CSN for the greater Quebec City region did not begin in absolute confidence when they came to power in 2015. Just because there is a change of government does not mean that we are less suspicious. We were as much, remembers Ms. Gingras, seated in a cafe in Limoilou with Radio-Canada.

In recent years, it has multiplied its outings, sometimes more virulent, against the political formation that it now wishes to represent.

Barely three years ago, she occupied the offices of the Liberal Party of Canada in Quebec City alongside workers at the Davie shipyard. Dissatisfied with the commitments of the government of Justin Trudeau, she wrote in an open letter that the political will made woefully lacking in Ottawa.

In the same missive, she skinned the member for Quebec and Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, he who attended all smiles at the nomination of Ms. Gingras last month.

(Archives) While Ann Gingras chaired the central council of the CSN for Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches, dozens of workers from the Davie shipyard demonstrated in front of the offices of federal Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.

Photo: Radio-Canada / Jean-François Nadeau

As recently as 2019, Davie workers this time disrupted the Liberal Party convention, held in the capital. Ann Gingras once again vilified the government for its inaction.

She deplored the layoffs of hundreds of workers, while order books were overflowing with federal contracts with competitors Irving and Seaspan. Refusing the attacks according to which the construction site begged for charity, Ms. Gingras has always demanded justice and fairness for Davie. Argument she maintains today.

Then, in July 2020, despite Davie’s recent prequalification as the third yard of the National Shipbuilding Strategy, and despite contracts announced by the government, Ms. Gingras continued to be impatient with the Liberals. Ads don’t put bread or butter on the table at the end of the week, she declared.

Davie shipyard, in Lévis

Ann Gingras worked on the Davie shipyard file for almost 20 years.

Photo : Radio-Canada / Marc Andre Turgeon

Turnaround

A year later and now that she has taken the leap into politics, Ann Gingras is more optimistic than ever. Everything is on the way, and that means more contracts to come. Really, for the first time, we see work at the Davie shipyard for the next 40 years, she says.

The most important contracts that the federal government has for Davie have yet to be concluded. The construction of a polar icebreaker and six program icebreakers remain under discussion. Nothing can be resolved as long as the site has not yet officially integrated the National Strategy.

The prequalification of the site dates from December 2019. In this regard, Ms. Gingras does not blame the government, but rather the employer for the delays. The problem with the delay is not because of the government. You have to know how to put pressure in the right place, she insists. One of his last actions at the CSN was to meet Davie’s management so that it accelerates.

Canada's future polar icebreaker.

Canada wants to build two polar icebreakers, including one at the Davie shipyard.

Photo : Vard

She now believes that all the stars are aligned and that the files have been submitted.

But while Ms. Gingras is enthusiastic, her former union organization stamps its foot and essentially uses words already used by its former president. There is still some way to go to move from words to deeds, reacted the union this week when all the federal parties showed their support for the Davie project.

Mobilization and taps on the fingers

For Ann Gingras, three ingredients led to a rapprochement with the Liberals. But she doesn’t mention the federal government right off the bat.

In his opinion, it is first and foremost the mobilization of Davie workers that made the difference. Then repeated warning shots from the Auditor General of Canada on the National Shipbuilding Strategy, she said, had a shocking effect on the Trudeau government, which began to listen more carefully.

Those who made things happen are the workers, it is civil society, the cities, the mayors, the chambers of commerce, the unanimous support of the National Assembly of Quebec. We add to that a government [fédéral] who finally heard us.

A quote from:Ann Gingras, Liberal Party of Canada candidate in Beauport – Limoilou

If this listening is relatively recent, a seed was sown by the Liberals in 2017. Ms. Gingras remembers seeing the deputy for Louis-Hébert, Joël Lightbound, at a demonstration by Davie workers.

Organized jointly by the union and the employer, a myriad of politicians attended. Despite criticism, the Liberal government dispatched Mr. Lightbound anyway. Ms. Gingras says she won a lot of respect for the deputy that day.

As for the opposition parties, Ann Gingras does not give them a quarter, nor does they welcome their positions to defend Davie in recent years in the House of Commons. Even as she judges indecent to see them slap on the back and take a share of the merit in the recent successes of the site.

In addition to the Davie file, Ms. Gingras justifies her entry on the scene from the side progressive from the Liberal Party. I see that the Liberal Party of Canada has changed a lot recently. There is an openness, a diversity and I find that it is a fairly progressive party., she said when announcing her candidacy.

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