The Canadian Press
Joan Bryden
OTTAWA–Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have pulled off a stunning byelection upset, snatching the federal riding of Lac-Saint-Jean away from the Conservatives.
A Liberal victory in Quebec’s nationalist heartland–where the party hasn’t won since 1980 and where it posted its worst result in the province in 2015–would have been remarkable at any time.
But it was particularly sweet for the prime minister yesterday, coming at time when his government has been mired for weeks in controversy over small business tax reform proposals, the personal finances and ethics of his finance minister, and a new cultural policy that’s been especially panned in Quebec.
The Conservatives held onto another long-time Tory riding, however.
Dane Lloyd, a 26-year-old with a history of posting controversial views in social media, easily retained the Edmonton riding of Sturgeon River-Parkland with 77 percent of the vote.
He succeeds Rona Ambrose, the respected former cabinet minister and interim Conservative leader, who quit as the riding’s MP last spring to join a Washington-based think-tank.
Lac-Saint-Jean, meanwhile, had been held since 2007 by former Conservative minister Denis Lebel until his retirement last spring.
Prior to that, it was a Bloc Quebecois stronghold–the home base of sovereigntist champion and Bloc founder Lucien Bouchard, who went on to become premier of Quebec.
Richard Hebert, former mayor of Dolbeau-Mistassini, won the riding yesterday for the Liberals, taking 38 percent of the vote–more than double the party’s vote share in 2015.
He was some 14 percentage points ahead of the Conservative candidate, who was just slightly ahead of the Bloc contender.
The NDP’s Gisele Dallaire, who was a close second behind Lebel in 2015, finished a distant fourth yesterday with just 12 percent of the vote.
Voter turnout in the riding was 41 percent–surprisingly high for a byelection and a sign of just how vigorously it was contested.
The four main party leaders all campaigned in the riding.
By contrast, turnout in Sturgeon River-Parkland was just 23.7 percent, which is more typical for a byelection.
