By-elections to the 39th Canadian Parliament

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By-elections to the 39th Canadian Parliament were held to fill vacancies in the House of Commons of Canada between the 2006 federal election and the 2008 federal election. The Conservative Party of Canada led a minority government for the entirety of the 39th Canadian Parliament, although their seat total increased as a result of by-election results.

Twelve vacancies occurred during the life of the Parliament. Nine of these were filled by by-elections and the remaining three were filled at the 2008 federal election.

Overview

By-election	Date	Incumbent	Party		Winner	Party		Cause	Retained
Toronto Centre	March 17, 2008	Bill Graham		Liberal	Bob Rae		Liberal	Resigned	Yes
Willowdale	March 17, 2008	Jim Peterson		Liberal	Martha Hall Findlay		Liberal	Resigned	Yes
Vancouver Quadra	March 17, 2008	Stephen Owen		Liberal	Joyce Murray		Liberal	Resigned	Yes
Desnethé—Missinippi— Churchill River	March 17, 2008	Gary Merasty		Liberal	Rob Clarke		Conservative	Resigned to enter private sector	No
Outremont	September 17, 2007	Jean Lapierre		Liberal	Thomas Mulcair		New Democratic	Resigned	No
Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot	September 17, 2007	Yvan Loubier		Bloc Québécois	Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac		Bloc Québécois	Resigned to enter provincial politics	Yes
Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean	September 17, 2007	Michel Gauthier		Bloc Québécois	Denis Lebel		Conservative	Resigned	No
London North Centre	November 27, 2006	Joe Fontana		Liberal	Glen Pearson		Liberal	Resigned to run for Mayor of London	Yes
Repentigny	November 27, 2006	Benoît Sauvageau		Bloc Québécois	Raymond Gravel		Bloc Québécois	Death (car accident)	Yes

2006

Two federal

on November 27, 2006, to fill vacancies in the House of Commons of Canada. Both seats were held by their incumbent parties.

London North Centre

Long-time MP

to be held.

The election result presented a major breakthrough for the Green Party. Party leader Elizabeth May tripled the party's local result in the 2006 general election just ten months earlier, placing slightly ahead of former London mayor Dianne Haskett, the candidate of the governing Conservatives.

v t e Canadian federal by-election, November 27, 2006: London North Centre Resignation of Joe Fontana
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Glen Pearson	13,287	34.85	−5.27
	Green	Elizabeth May	9,864	25.87	+20.38
	Conservative	Dianne Haskett	9,309	24.42	−5.48
	New Democratic	Megan Walker	5,388	14.13	−9.62
	Progressive Canadian	Steven Hunter	145	0.38	−0.09
	Independent	Robert Ede	77	0.20	–
	Canadian Action	Will Arlow	53	0.14	–
Total			38,123	100.00

Repentigny

MP

on August 28, 2006.

There had been pressure from

. Instead, the Conservative candidate was Stéphane Bourgon, a lawyer.

The Bloc Québécois, of which Sauvageau was a member, ran

candidate was union activist and former Canadian navy member Réjean Bellemare, who had also run for the NDP in the previous general election.

The Green Party of Canada had announced that Marc-André Gadoury would be their candidate, but central office did not complete and send paperwork to Marc-André Gadoury, not to name leader signature, in sufficient time to get on the ballot. Gadoury suggested that the Greens did not submit the paperwork on purpose and on November 25, 2006, La Presse reported that Gadoury was endorsing the NDP candidate, Réjean Bellemare.

Raymond Gravel of the Bloc Québécois won the by-election with an approximately two-thirds majority of votes.

Canadian federal by-election, 27 November 2006
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Due to the death of Benoît Sauvageau, August 28, 2006
	Bloc Québécois	Raymond Gravel	20,635	66.3%	+3.98
	Conservative	Stéphane Bourgon	5,822	18.7%	+0.62
	New Democratic	Réjean Bellemare	2,187	7.0%	-0.74
	Liberal	Christian Turenne	1,940	6.2%	-2.45
	Independent	Jocelyne Leduc	390	1.3%	n/a
	Canadian Action	Mahmood Raza Baig	91	0.3%	n/a
	Independent	Régent Millette	78	0.3%	n/a
Total			31,143	100.00%

2007

On September 17, 2007, three federal by-elections were held in the Canadian province of Quebec to fill vacancies in the House of Commons. Each of the three by-elections was won by a different political party.

The by-elections in Outremont and Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot were originally announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on July 28, 2007.^[2] The third vacancy, in Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean, occurred after the other two by-election campaigns were already underway, but Harper announced the by-election in that riding on August 11, scheduling it for the same date.^[3]

Outremont

The riding of

were held on the same day.

The by-election was triggered when Lapierre resigned from the House on January 28, to accept a position as a

called the by-election on the last possible day, July 28.

Candidates

Finally, Liberal leader

Pearson Peacekeeping Centre

's Montreal campus.

The Liberal announcement was not without controversy, and was condemned by Jewish lobby group

Quebec-Israel Committee

stated that B'nai Brith's statements were exaggerated and that Coulon had every right to be the Liberal candidate. Though the riding is only 10 per cent Jewish, past Liberal candidates have traditionally relied heavily on the faithful support of this important voting block.

The Bloc Québécois, which came in second in the seat in 2006, selected Belgian-born, Lacanian psychoanalyst Jean-Paul Gilson as their candidate. Gilson immigrated to Canada in 1993.

The

from 1994 to 2007.

On April 20, Mulcair announced he was joining the New Democratic Party during a joint press conference with NDP Leader Jack Layton on Mont Royal.^[5] He currently serves as the NDP's Quebec spokesperson. Mulcair was nominated in an uncontested race on June 21 as the NDP candidate.^[6]

The

.

The

on August 7. Gourd wished to finish last in the election.

Several

record holder

for most elections contested and for the most elections lost; and Jocelyne Leduc.

Results

By-election on September 17, 2007 Resignation of Jean Lapierre
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Thomas Mulcair	11,374	47.5	+30.4
	Liberal	Jocelyn Coulon	6,933	29.0	–6.1
	Bloc Québécois	Jean-Paul Gilson	2,618	10.9	–17.9
	Conservative	Gilles Duguay	2,052	8.6	–4.2
	Green	François Pilon	529	2.2	–2.6
	neorhino.ca	François Yo Gourd	145	0.6	—
	Independent	Mahmood Raza Baig	78	0.3	—
	Independent	Jocelyne Leduc	61	0.3	—
	Independent	Romain Angeles	46	0.2	—
	Canadian Action	Alexandre Amirizian	45	0.2	—
	Independent	Régent Millette	32	0.1	+0.0
	Independent	John Turmel	30	0.1	—
Total			23,943	100.00
	New Democratic Party gain from Liberal		Swing	–18.3

2006 Results

2006 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Jean Lapierre	14,282	35.2	-5.7
	Bloc Québécois	Jacques Léonard	11,778	29.0	-4.3
	New Democratic	Léo-Paul Lauzon	6,984	17.2	+3.1
	Conservative	Daniel Fournier	5,168	12.7	+6.7
	Green	François Pilon	1,957	4.8	+0.5
	Independent	Eric Roach Denis	101	0.3	-
	Progressive Canadian	Philip Paynter	94	0.2	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Linda Sullivan	88	0.2	-0.1
	Independent	Yan Lacombe	85	0.2	-
	Independent	Xavier Rochon	34	0.1	-
	Independent	Régent Millette	22	0.1	-
Total			40,593	100.00%
Difference			2,504	6.2
Rejected Ballots			282	0.7
Turnout			40,875	60.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	-0.7

Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean

The electoral district of Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean was left vacant by the resignation of Michel Gauthier (Bloc). Although Gauthier resigned after the other two by-elections had already been called, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the by-election on August 11 for the same date as the others.^[3]

Notably, Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean was a district which the Tories had heavily targeted in the 2006 election but had narrowly lost. It was seen as the district most likely to be winnable for the party in the by-elections — and thus the by-election Harper was most eager to actually schedule.

Results

Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean by-election, September 17, 2007
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	+/–
	Conservative Party	Denis Lebel	17,463	59.7	+22.5
	Bloc Québécois	Céline Houde	7,830	26.8	–18.4
	Liberal Party	Louise Boulanger	2,795	9.6	+1.8
	New Democratic Party	Éric Dubois	675	2.3	–3.2
	Green	Jean-Luc Boily	499	1.7	–2.6
Total			29,262	100
	Conservative Party gain from Bloc Québécois

2006 Results

2006 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Bloc Québécois	Michel Gauthier	17,586	45.20%	-14.21%
	Conservative	Ghislain Lavoie	14,463	37.18%	+28.52%
	Liberal	Luc Chiasson	3,014	7.75%	-15.45%
	New Democratic	François Privé	2,151	5.53%	+0.42%
	Green	Sébastien Girard	1,689	4.34%	+0.72%
Total valid votes			38,903	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			397	1.01
Turnout			39,300	62.15
Difference			3,123	8.03
	Bloc Québécois hold		Swing		-21.4

Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot

The by-election in

's Brigitte Sansoucy.

Results

Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot by-election, September 17, 2007
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	+/-
	Bloc Québécois	Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac	13,443	42.1	-13.9%
	Conservative Party	Bernard Barré	11,965	37.5	+12.7%
	New Democratic Party	Brigitte Sansoucy	2,538	7.9	+2.4%
	Liberal Party	Jean Caumartin	2,376	7.4	-2.4%
	Green	Jacques Tétreault	1,169	3.7	-0.2%
	neorhino.ca	Christian Willie Vanasse	384	1.2	–
	Canadian Action	Michel St-Onge	61	0.2
Total			31,936
	Bloc Québécois hold		Swing		{{{3}}}

2006 Results

2006 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Bloc Québécois	Yvan Loubier	27,838	56.0%	-6.4%
	Conservative	Huguette Guilhaumon	12,323	24.8%	+13.8%
	Liberal	Stéphane Deschênes	4,884	9.8%	-12.2%
	New Democratic	Joëlle Chevrier	2,723	5.5%	+3%
	Green	Jacques Tétreault	1,925	3.9%	+1.9%
Total valid votes			49,693	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			827	1.6
Turnout			50,520	66.4
Difference			15,515	31.2
	Bloc Québécois hold		Swing		-10.1

2008

Four federal by-elections were held in Canada on March 17, 2008 to fill vacancies in the House of Commons of Canada.

The vacancies were caused by the resignations of Liberal MPs Gary Merasty (Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River), Bill Graham (Toronto Centre), Stephen Owen (Vancouver Quadra) and Jim Peterson (Willowdale).

A further three by-elections were scheduled for September 8 due to the resignations of Lucienne Robillard (Westmount—Ville-Marie), Brenda Chamberlain (Guelph) and Maka Kotto (Saint-Lambert), and an eighth by-election, resulting from the resignation of MP John Godfrey (Don Valley West), had been called for September 22, 2008. However, the four by-elections scheduled for September were pre-empted by the issuance on September 7 of election writs for the 2008 federal election.^[7]

March 17 by-elections

With all four by-elections taking place in ridings previously held by the Liberals, media generally treated them as a test of Stéphane Dion's leadership. Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, a swing riding which the Liberals had won by a margin of just 68 votes in the 2006 election and in which the by-election campaign was mired in controversy around the process of appointing candidates, was seen as the only riding of the four that the Liberals could afford to lose — the other three were all safe Liberal ridings whose loss would have been seen as precipitating a major crisis for the party.^[8]

Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River

The riding of Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River became vacant on August 31, 2007 with the resignation of Liberal MP Gary Merasty.

David Orchard, a former member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and backer of Stéphane Dion during the Liberal leadership contest, had announced that he would seek the Liberal nomination in Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River. However, on January 3, 2008, Dion used his power of appointment to appoint Joan Beatty as the Liberal candidate for that riding. While Dion had stated several times that he would use his power of appointment to ensure more female candidates,^[9] many felt the appointment was a snub to his erstwhile supporter and media reports suggested that Ralph Goodale, a prominent Saskatchewan MP, opposed Orchard's candidacy.^[10]

Beatty, who was a New Democratic Party MLA in the Saskatchewan legislature until her federal candidacy was announced, also faced some criticism, both for her switch in party affiliations and for resigning to run federally just seven weeks after being reelected in the 2007 provincial election.^[11] Some Liberal Party members in the riding threatened to boycott the by-election entirely, or to vote for another party, if Dion did not rescind the appointment and allow a normal nomination contest to take place.^[12]

Voter turnout: 10,462 of 41,841 registered electors (25.0%)

By-election on March 17, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rob Clarke	4,992	47.66%	+6.57%
	Liberal	Joan Beatty	3,296	31.47%	-9.90%
	New Democratic	Brian Morin	1,830	17.47%	+2.10%
	Green	Robin Orr	320	3.05%	+0.89%
Total rejected ballots			37	0.35%	-
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	+8.2

Toronto Centre

The riding of Toronto Centre became vacant on July 2, 2007, with the resignation of Liberal MP Bill Graham.

The original

Voter turnout: 23,951 of 85,976 registered electors (27.9%).

By-election on March 17, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Bob Rae	14,187	59.23	+7.03
	New Democratic	El-Farouk Khaki	3,312	13.83	-9.91
	Green	Chris Tindal	3,199	13.36	+8.15
	Conservative	Don Meredith	2,939	12.27	-5.94
	Animal Alliance	Liz White	123	0.51	+0.39
	Canadian Action	Doug Plumb	97	0.40	-
Total rejected ballots			96	0.40	-
	Liberal hold		Swing	+8.5

Vancouver Quadra

The riding of

Gordon Campbell's

government. Green Party candidate Dan Grice, a technology consultant, ran a campaign based on cutting down on carbon emissions and tax shifting, hoping for an electoral breakthrough for his party.

On election day, early results showed Murray and Meredith in a dead heat, see-saw race. Later in the night, Murray was able to capture a more comfortable lead of several hundred votes, and the media declared her the winner. However, as the advanced polls were opened and counted, Meredith started to close the gap. After all 237 polls were counted, Murray remained in the lead, finishing with a narrow 151 (0.53%) vote margin above her Conservative opponent.

Voter turnout: 28,165 of 83,121 registered electors (33.9%).

By-election on March 17, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Joyce Murray	10,155	35.96%	-12.88%
	Conservative	Deborah Meredith	10,004	35.42%	+6.33%
	New Democratic	Rebecca Coad	4,064	14.39%	-1.71%
	Green	Dan Grice	3,792	13.43%	+8.29%
	neorhino.ca	John Turner	111	0.39%	-
	Canadian Action	Psamuel Frank	40	0.14%	-
Total rejected ballots			77	0.27%
	Liberal hold		Swing	-9.56

Willowdale

The riding of Willowdale became vacant on July 12, 2007 with the resignation of Liberal MP Jim Peterson. Martha Hall Findlay, former Liberal leadership contestant, was a star candidate. She faced Conservative lawyer Maureen Harquail, NDP candidate Rini Ghosh, and Green candidate Lou Carcasole. On election night, Hall Findlay garnered nearly 60% of the vote.

Voter turnout: 22,797 of 93,413 registered electors (24.4%).

By-election on March 17, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Martha Hall Findlay	13,507	59.15%	+6.92%
	Conservative	Maureen Harquail	6,841	29.96%	+0.65%
	Green	Lou Carcasole	1,314	5.75%	+1.66%
	New Democratic	Rini Ghosh	1,082	4.74%	-6.61%
Total rejected ballots			93	0.41%	-
	Liberal hold		Swing	+3.1

Cancelled by-elections

Four by-elections scheduled for September 2008 were pre-empted by the issuance on September 7 of election writs for the 2008 federal election. In all four ridings, the by-election candidates continued to represent their parties into the general election.

Westmount—Ville-Marie

The riding of

Claude William Genest (Green

) and independents Régent Millette, David Sommer Rovins and Ronald Andrew Wattie.

The by-election was scheduled for September 8.

Saint-Lambert

The riding of

Quebec National Assembly. Kotto was elected to the National Assembly in a May 12, 2008 provincial by-election. The new BQ candidate was Josée Beaudin

. The NDP nominated Richard Marois, president of the Conseil régional de l'environnement de la Montérégie, the Liberals ran lawyer and Crown attorney Roxane Stanners, the Conservative candidate was Patrick Clune, and the Greens nominated occupational therapist Diane Joubert.

The by-election was scheduled for September 8.

Guelph

The riding of

Marxist-Leninist Party, Drew Garvie for the Communist Party and John Turmel ran as an independent.^[16]

The by-election was scheduled for September 8.

Don Valley West

The riding of

headmaster of Toronto French School, but delayed his resignation until August 1. The delay was reportedly at the request of the Liberal Party which, the National Post claimed did not want to fight four by-elections simultaneously for financial reasons.^[17] Godfrey's office stated the delay was due to a private members bill Godfrey had worked on not being given royal assent until June 26.^[15]

This by-election was scheduled for September 22. Due to the timing of Godfrey's retirement, the Don Valley West by-election could not have been added to the September 8 trio. Under current Canadian election law, a by-election cannot occur any earlier than 47 working days (an 11-day period to ensure that Elections Canada has been notified of the vacancy, plus a minimum 36-day campaign) after a vacancy occurs in the House.

New Democratic Party nominated actor David Sparrow, while the Green Party

nominated Georgina Wilcock, a medical doctor with specialist training in obstetrics and gynecology.

See also

• List of federal by-elections in Canada

References

1. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
2. ^ ^{a b} "Harper calls byelections in two Quebec ridings". CTV News, July 28, 2007.
3. ^ ^{a b} "Harper calls third Quebec byelection for Sept. 17". CTV News, August 11, 2007.
4. ^ "Coulon to run as Outremont's Liberal". Canoe.ca. July 18, 2007. Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved July 29, 2007.
5. ^ "Layton recruits ex-Quebec environment minister to carry NDP banner". Canoe.ca. April 20, 2007. Archived from the original on April 23, 2007. Retrieved July 29, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
6. ^ "Former Quebec cabinet minister to run in Montreal riding as NDP candidate". Yahoo News Canada. July 20, 2007. Retrieved July 29, 2007. ^{[dead link]}
7. ^ Woods, Allan (August 23, 2008). "Tories set up early election call". The Star. Toronto. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
8. ^ "It's a great day for Liberals", Linda Diebel, Toronto Star, March 18, 2008.
9. ^ Dion offers plan for gender parity in Parliament^{[dead link]}, July 12, 2006
10. ^ Delacourt, Susan, "Dion accused of snubbing Orchard", Toronto Star, January 5, 2008.
11. ^ "Joan Beatty, Explain Yourself", CKOM News/Talk 650, January 4, 2008. Archived May 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
12. ^ "Saskatchewan Liberals may boycott by-election", The Globe and Mail, January 26, 2008. Archived January 30, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
13. ^ Susan Delacourt, "Harper's team dumps city-friendly candidate", Toronto Star, November 1, 2007
14. ^ Weisblott, Marc, "What about Bob?", Eye Weekly, March 12, 2008 Archived May 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
15. ^ ^{a b c} "Candidates girding for byelection calls" Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine, Hill Times, July 14, 2008
16. Guelph Tribune. September 26, 2008. Retrieved November 20, 2008.^{[dead link}
    ]
17. ^ Ivison, John, "Liberal war chest on credit", National Post, July 9, 2008 ^{[dead link]}
18. ^ Queen, Lisa, "Oliphant wins tough federal Liberal race" Archived 2011-07-13 at the Wayback Machine, The (East York-Rivedale) Mirror, March 3, 2008, accessed March 4, 2008