Voters in Glengarry-Prescott-Russell will join others across Canada in casting their ballots in the federal election on September 20, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the vote last weekend.

Candidates in the riding will have only five short weeks to get their messages out to voters before election day. Polling places will be open for 12 hours on September 20. In Ontario, polls will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

As of Monday, August 16, four parties had announced candidates for the election in the riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, including the incumbent Liberal Member of Parliament Francis Drouin. On Monday, the Conservative Party announced Susan McArthur as its candidate. Konstantine Malakos of the NDP and Brennan Austring of the People’s Party of Canada had previously announced their candidacies.

A notable name missing from the list of candidates is former Conservative MP and leadership candidate Pierre Lemieux, who served three terms as Glengarry-Prescott-Russell MP from 2006 to 2015. Lemieux was denied permission to run in this year’s election by the Conservative Party, due to party nomination rules, which state an applicant must not have been an unsuccessful candidate in both of the two prior general elections.

Lemieux lost his seat by a narrow margin to Liberal Francis Drouin in 2015 and failed to retake the seat in 2019, losing by 7,142 votes. A waiver application by the former MP, which would have allowed him to run in this election, was denied by the party earlier this month.

Drouin, who won the 2019 election with 47.6 per cent of the vote, has represented the riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell since 2015. The two-term MP holds a degree in business administration from Collège La Cité, of which he was a member of the Board of Directors, and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Ottawa.

Drouin first worked as a Special Assistant in the Office of the Premier of Ontario and then in the private sector as a government relations consultant and worked as Director of Government Relations for Startup Canada. He organizes an annual event to raise funds for Centre aide.

Susan McArthur, who was introduced as the Conservative Party of Canada candidate in the riding of Glengarry–Prescott–Russell the day after the election was called, is a successful bilingual businesswoman with 35 years of experience across the finance, real-estate technology, and insurance sectors, McArthur has served as a corporate director for a number of Canadian public companies and is a past Chair of the Canada Revenue Agency Board of Management.

Raised in Hudson, Quebec, McArthur is the proud mother of two adult sons, Jamie and Jack. She graduated from Western University and has completed the ICD program at the Rotman School of Management.

NDP candidate Konstantine Malakos is a homesteader, community builder, human rights activist, and is endlessly optimistic that better is not only possible but within reach. On his website, Malakos’ bio states that having grown up in Peterborough as a first-generation Canadian who worked in his family’s pizzeria, the NDP candidate witnessed firsthand the impacts of factory closures on businesses and households.

In April of 2021, Malakos was acclaimed as the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate in an online nomination meeting. Malakos was the NDP candidate for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell in the 2019 federal election and received 6,851 votes, or 10.4 per cent of the popular vote – finishing third behind Conservative candidate Lemieux and incumbent Liberal MP Drouin.

People’s Party of Canada candidate Brennan Austring has worked as an engine fitter at Rolls Royce for 13 years, according to his profile on Linkedin. A resident of Hawkesbury, Austring is originally from Campbellford, Ontario.

Over the next several weeks, The Review will speak with each of the candidates contesting the riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell. We will outline the issues and provide a biography of each candidate and their positions on various concerns within the riding.

Left to right: Federal election candidates for the riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell. Left to right: Liberal Francis Drouin, Conservative Susan McArthur, and NDP candidate Konstantine Malakos.