MONTREAL — For the first time in more than 20 years, Montrealers and non-francophones have some leverage in Quebec provincial politics, thanks to the Quebec Liberal Party’s leadership campaign.

Usually, these overlapping groups have little influence in provincial elections.

Non-French-speaking voters have, in effect, been disenfranchised because their priority is to block the election of a Parti Québécois government, which makes them the electoral captives of the QLP.

That, in turn, makes 20 of the current 28 seats on the island of Montreal as safe for the Liberals as if they were small, single-party states.

The last time most Liberal seats on the island were seriously threatened was in 1989, when the now moribund, English-rights Equality Party captured the only four seats it ever held.

And of the eight currently non-Liberal seats on the island, only three have changed hands in any of the last three general elections.

So the parties have little incentive to compete for the support of non-francophones and other Montreal voters.

And this leaves the province’s metropolis with little political clout compared to Quebec City, Laval and most rural regions, where there are ridings up for grabs.

This changes, however, when the QLP is holding a contested leadership campaign, as it is currently, for the first time since 1983.

In February and early March, the members of each of the 125 Liberal riding associations will choose 24 delegates, who in turn will elect the leader at a convention in mid-March.

The convention will be held in Montreal, making it easier and less expensive for delegates from the metropolitan area to attend; the party can’t afford to pay delegates’ travel expenses, leaving that to the candidates.

So even if the QLP doesn’t need to compete for the support of non-francophones and other Montrealers, its leadership candidates do.

There are to be five town-hall debates among the candidates in January and early February, open to the public, streamed on the Internet and, the party hopes, broadcast on television or radio as well.

The first of the debates will be held in greater Montreal. One of the debates will be in English only.

On Saturday, rank-and-file party members from the predominantly non-francophone West Island had an opportunity to “exchange” with each of the declared candidates in private (the media were not informed of the event in advance).

A similar but more public event, at a special convention of the party’s youth wing, was held on Sunday at Champlain College in Saint-Lambert, on the South Shore opposite Montreal.

Understandably, the candidates were primarily concerned with appealing to the young Liberals who are allotted one-third of the convention delegates’ positions in each riding.

Also, the exchanges at the convention were upstaged by an attack before the event on early favourite Philippe Couillard by rival Raymond Bachand.

In an apparent attempt to turn Liberals loyal to former leader Jean Charest against Couillard, Bachand accused his former cabinet colleague of having tried to “overthrow” Charest.

This was an apparent reference to Couillard’s cabinet victory against Charest — and Bachand — over the location of the new Université de Montréal teaching hospital.

Even at the youth convention, however, the three former ministers seeking the leadership — the third isPierre Moreau — each acknowledged that non-francophones feel taken for granted by the QLP.

They haven’t made many specific commitments yet. And once the new leader is chosen, non-francophones and other Montrealers might not have the leverage to hold him to his promises.

But at least until then, they can enjoy some unaccustomed attention.

dmacpherson@montrealgazette.com

Twitter:@MacphersonGaz