Last night wrapped up this fall's provincial provincial by-elections across the Canada. There were two in Saskatchewan and one in Quebec.Let's start in Quebec. The by-election was held in Rousseau, a rural/exurban riding northeast of Montreal. It has voted for the PQ steadily since 1994, and went overwhelmingly in favour of the "Oui" side in the referendum. So, it was no surprise that this riding went for the PQ again last night. The Liberals did increase their vote by over 8 points, as the ADQ vote (once a close second place finisher in the 2007 race) collapsed in this riding to a measly 5%. The PQ vote held steady.
Saskatchewan had two by-elections. One was in Regina Douglas Park, a safe NDP seat on the south side of Regina, while the other was in Saskatoon Riversdale, another safe NDP seat in southwest Saskatoon.
Regina Douglas Park was vacated allowing the newly elected NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter a seat in the Assembly. He held the seat, but lost a couple points from the NDP result last election. The Liberal's didn't run here, and appears most of their vote went to the governing Saskatchewan Party which gained 10 points here.
Saskatoon Riversdale was vacated by outgoing NDP leader and former Premier Lorne Calvert. The by-election here also saw the NDP vote drop marginally, while the Saskatchewan Party gained substantially. Once again, they gained 10 points, mostly from the Liberals whose vote collapsed here, despite having actually run a candidate.
What conclusions can be drawn from last night? Well, another boring batch of by-elections for sure, BUT it looks like the ADQ is pretty much dead in Quebec. They'll be lucky to even win a seat next time, I reckon. And the Liberals are pretty much dead in Saskatchewan, if we haven't yet had a funeral for them.
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