Meanwhile in Texas…

Sometimes… words… fail…

Quebec by-elections

Some astonishing, nay, amazing, results in federal by-elections in Quebec last night:

In Outremont (which is in central Montreal) the NDP’s Thomas Mulcair (a former provincial Liberal minister) has won with a large majority on a huge swing. This result is nothing short of historic and it’ll be interesting to see if the NDP can build on this breakthrough.

Another huge swing came in the seperatist stronghold of Roberval where the BQ were defeated, and by over 30pts, by the Tories in a seat that was once one of the very safest BQ seats in the province (though the majority had fallen below 10pts in 2006). The BQ also came shockingly close to losing another seperatist stronghold, Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot, to the Tories in what was the closest result of the night. The Liberals performed badly in both, finishing in fourth place in Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot and a poor third in Roberval.

These results are a huge blow to Liberal leader Stéphane Dion and, as they were excellent for the Tories, may signal an early General Election.

Tempting fate?

Cash for Constituencies

Interesting article by Peter Bradley (Labour M.P for The Wrekin from ‘97 until ‘05).

Results of the Rushbury Parish by-election (30th August, 2007)

N.T.Dale 77 (Elected)
A.J.Livingstone 66 (Elected)
K.B.I.Stevenson 53

Spoilt ballots: 1

All candidates were, of course, “independents”. A shame that Dale won, but I can’t say I’m surprised.