MONTREAL — A decidedly unscientific random sample of voters in the riding of Mount Royal suggests that incumbent Liberal MP Irwin Cotler’s personal popularity is so strong that the Liberals don’t have much to worry about when it comes to holding on to what is arguably the safest Liberal seat in Canada.

On the other hand, some of the voters interviewed by The CJN last week at Cavendish Mall conceded that if Cotler – the incumbent since 1999 who took his seat by 16,000 votes in the last federal election in 2006 – wasn’t running, they would seriously consider voting Tory on Oct. 14.

So said Stan Frank, 64, a retired pharmacist as he read his newspaper in the mall’s food court.

“I’m not particularly fond of the Liberal party’s voting on topics of Israeli concerns, but Cotler has done yeoman’s service in trying to turn around the Liberal party to a more favourably balanced view,” he said.

If Cotler had decided not to run this time out and if the Conservatives had fielded a strong candidate, Frank, who has always voted Liberal, said he would have switched.

The Conservative candidate is Israeli-born Rafael Tzoubari, an engineer and businessman.

“A lot of my friends, family and old acquaintances from my pharmacy days are saying the same thing,” Frank said.

“As a matter of fact, we just had a dinner for 45 [retired] Jewish pharmacists, and that was the consensus.”

Like them, Frank said, “I feel I have to vote for [Cotler] again because he’s done such great work, but I hope the Tories get elected.”

Similarly, 87-year-old Sol Drobetsky said that if Cotler was not running, he “might” vote for the Conservative candidate.

Drobetsky said he has voted Liberal in the riding “all my life,” and would keep doing so.

The riding has been a Liberal stronghold since 1940.

Myer Sternthal, an 83-year-old retired salesman, said he would like to see Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Tories win the election, but he also said he would vote Liberal so as not to “waste” his vote.

“Cotler is a good man, but I think [the Conservatives] would come a lot closer [if Cotler wasn’t running]” Sternthal said.

Harry Fleisher, 89, said his vote is going to Cotler – “Who else is there?” he asked – and would not even bother to consider what he’d do if the incumbent had bowed out.

“I’m too far gone to think about that,” he laughed.

Sixty-year-old Stella Rejwan said she was unsure about what she’d do in that situation.

“That’s a very hard one,” she said. “I like Irwin a lot and think he’s great, but I don’t know what I’d do under those circumstances, since I’ve always voted Liberal.”

Fifty-three-year-old Sidney Nemes, owner of J & R Kosher Meat and Delicatessen in the mall, said that Cotler is “great” and that he is “partial” toward him, but he wouldn’t reveal whether he would vote for the former justice minister.

The one person who demurred from the others was retired teacher Jenny Goldman, 72.

She called the election unnecessary and “boring,” and said she would probably support the Green party or the NDP.

Goldman said she realized that a lot of voters in Mount Royal like Harper because he has been “good for Israel, but that’s not enough [reason] to vote for someone here [in Canada].”

Goldman did not count herself among those whose “automatic vote” in the riding is for the Liberals.

“I’ve always been a dissident,” she said. “I know people who are voting Tory for the first time, because they feel Irwin doesn’t have the power since he’s not in the government.

“He might be nice and good and whatever, but if he can’t do anything…” she added, her voice trailing off.