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An independent candidate in LaSalle–Émard–Verdun wants to hear from voters in a big way.

Julien Côté has put his phone number front-and-centre on bright yellow campaign signs across the riding, with the tagline: "Call me, seriously."

"People are just calling up!" Côté said in an interview with CBC News. "And I love that. That's the whole idea … I really want to represent what the constituents are concerned about, and I just really need to be in touch. I need to know what people are thinking."

Formerly a computer programmer for the federal government, Côté said that he quit his job so that he could run. This election is his first time throwing his hat into the political ring.

But since starting his campaign on Monday, he said curious residents have been getting in touch. Côté said he's had conversations on everything from GMO labelling to neighbourhood safety — things that he feels are not being discussed by the big political parties.

"There's a palpable sense that people are ready to step outside of the status quo," he said.
"Let's consider something new."


Julien Côté's campaign signs include his real phone number and an email address. The sign says 'Call me, seriously.' (Laura Marchand/CBC)

Running a grassroots campaign

Côté said he was inspired to run after the SNC-Lavalin affair, which saw cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould ousted from the Liberal caucus, especially after her own decision to run as an independent candidate.

"This political cycle, there is so much apathy and disgust towards the traditional parties that folks are ready to consider voting for an independent," he said.\

Côté argues that candidates running with the major parties may be forced to defend ideas and policies that go against the interest of the people in their ridings, as opposed to someone who is representing the riding on a "community level."

But he acknowledges that he doesn't have the resources of the big parties, either. He's been making his own election signs, and putting them up with his "top volunteer"— his mother.

"This is all really really fresh, and obviously I'm a novice at this," Côté said, laughing.

"But the response that I've been getting is tremendous!"

Despite not having his face on any of his posters, Côté said he's already been recognized in the community. After spending an hour speaking to clients of a local food bank, he said he ran into a man later when putting up posters, and struck up a conversation.

"That's just for being present there, just one day's worth of work," Côté said. "But it's such a wonderful, magical thing."

An uphill battle, says analyst

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But that might not be enough to win the seat, said P.J. Fournier, analyst and founder of 338Canada.

"I don't want to discourage anyone to participate in public life," Fournier said. "But if we're talking about odds here, there's very little historical precedent to suggest that an independent candidate can win."

Fournier cited the case of Gilles Bernier, who was re-elected in 1994 as an independent in the Beauce riding, but only after he had already been an MP under the Progressive Conservatives.

"To win you need a split vote," Fournier said. "But right now, the voting intention that we have in Montreal, all around the island, shows that the Liberals have a strong lead."

Fournier said the chances of someone taking one of those seats as an independent were "slim to none."

But Côté said that, despite the odds, he's remaining optimistic about his chances. He believes that few voters are married to any one political party, and that many of them engage in strategic voting to keep out the party they disagree with the most.

"Or they just look at all the parties and hate them all," Côté said.

He hopes to reach those who feel like there isn't a point in voting anymore, and show them that "there is great power in our democratic system."

"And if I can reach these people, enough of them, then I think I have a shot."

An independent candidate running in the Montreal riding of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun is standing by comments he made when he was associated with a known xenophobic white nationalist group.

Julien Côté, whose bright yellow posters encourage constituents to call him, acted as the spokesperson for ID Canada, a group which put up posters in Edmonton last year claiming there was an "ethnocide of old stock Canadians."

On its website, ID Canada describes itself as "Canada's leading identitarian movement" and as a group created in 2014 "as a response to Canada's decaying identity, increased third-world immigration and the prevalence of anti-European sentiments in this country."

The posters erected in Edmonton included a banner intended as a stark warning that read, "You're being replaced."

In an interview with CityNews Edmonton in January 2018, Côté said the group was "standing up for our European identity" and that he "didn't want to become a minority."

Edmonton police confirmed to CBC that they investigated the posters at the time.

Candidate stands by statements

Speaking to CBC News, Côté said he cut ties with ID Canada a year and a half ago over problems with its leadership. However, he said he stands by the statements he made when he was still with the group.

"I think there's a European character to Canada, and there's lots of evidence of that," he said, citing language and a "respect of the law and of democracy."

"I like the society we live in now," said Côté. "I see this as being imperilled."

On his campaign website, there is little hint of Côté's white nationalist politics. He does say he would push for "realistic immigration levels," but he does not go into detail about what that would entail.
Côté told CBC he is not a violent person, and he doesn't "know why people are so upset when we talk about issues like this."

"They just have zero empathy, and they have zero desire to hear anybody out who's talking about these issues," he said.

Dangerous rhetoric, says expert

Côté's rhetoric is familiar to Maxime Fiset, a former neo-Nazi and now an alt-right expert.

At 18, Fiset was a founding member of a far-right group in Quebec City called the Fédération des Québécois de souche, or old-stock Quebecers. He said that group employed similar language.

"We were trying to make a point that seemed valid for most of the population, but it was actually some kind of dog-whistling, some kind of way to legitimize our discourse," Fiset said.
Fiset said that far-right activists will often refer to "old-stock Canadians" or "European Canadians" to try to distance themselves from the concept of white supremacy.

"What these people want to is to open the debate on what kind of immigration is 'good' for the country, and obviously in their book, everything that is Muslim or non-white or South Asian is non-desirable," Fiset said.

"And that's pretty much textbook far right."

The federal election in Cape Breton was mostly a seesaw affair between the Liberals and Conservatives, but a political scientist says in the riding of Sydney-Victoria, an Independent candidate fared remarkably well.

Tom Urbaniak, a political science professor at Cape Breton University, said Archie MacKinnon got the third highest percentage of votes of any Independent candidate anywhere in Canada.

Only high-profile Independents Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott got higher percentages of the vote.

Urbaniak said MacKinnon's campaign resonated with a large number of voters.

"Here's an Independent candidate who got more than 14 per cent of the vote... in part because of a disillusionment with the system generally, the older parties," Urbaniak said.

"He actually ran a campaign. He was on the ground, beating the pavement, putting up signs, running on a bit of a Cape Breton patriotic platform and saying we have to fight the system the way it's structured now and that resonated with some voters."

Speaks for the people

Leo Seguin, an army veteran who lives in Sydney Mines, said he supported MacKinnon because he spoke for average people.

Seguin said even though MacKinnon came in fourth, his results were fantastic.

"You look at his numbers," Seguin said. "Well over 5,000 votes. Running as an Independent, that's unheard of."

MacKinnon said running provincially for the NDP years ago soured him on party politics, and he said voters on the doorstep agreed.

"They were saying basically that the people we were electing were doing and saying absolutely nothing about our problems down here," he said.

MacKinnon said he's not done with politics just yet.

He said the minority Parliament might not last long and municipal and provincial elections in Nova Scotia are on the horizon.