By-elections to the 39th Canadian Parliament

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.

Summary

+ Analysis of byelections by turnout and vote share for winning candidate (vs 2006)Riding and winning partyTurnoutVote share for winning candidate % Change (pp) % Change (pp)London North CentreHold 42.15 34.85 RepentignyHold 37.06 66.26 OutremontGain 37.43 47.60 Roberval—Lac-Saint-JeanGain 46.83 59.68 Saint-Hyacinthe—BagotHold 42.09 42.72 Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill RiverGain 24.72 47.82 Toronto CentreHold 27.86 59.46 Vancouver QuadraHold 33.78 36.05 WillowdaleHold 24.54 59.38

Overview By-election Date Incumbent Party Winner Party Cause RetainedToronto CentreMarch 17, 2008Bill GrahamBob RaeResignedYesWillowdaleMarch 17, 2008Jim PetersonMartha Hall FindlayResignedYesVancouver QuadraMarch 17, 2008Stephen OwenJoyce MurrayResignedYesDesnethé—Missinippi—Churchill RiverMarch 17, 2008Gary MerastyRob ClarkeResigned to enter private sectorNoOutremontJean LapierreThomas MulcairResignedNoSaint-Hyacinthe—BagotSeptember 17, 2007Yvan LoubierÈve-Mary Thaï Thi LacResigned to enter provincial politicsYesRoberval—Lac-Saint-JeanSeptember 17, 2007Michel GauthierDenis LebelResignedNoLondon North CentreNovember 27, 2006Joe FontanaGlen PearsonResigned to run for Mayor of LondonYesRepentignyNovember 27, 2006Benoît SauvageauRaymond GravelDeath (car accident)Yes

2006 Two federal by-elections were held in Canada 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 Joe Fontana resigned from the seat in 2006, in order to run in the London municipal election as a candidate for mayor, requiring a by-election 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.

Repentigny MP Benoît Sauvageau was killed in a car accident on August 28, 2006.

There had been pressure from opposition parties for Public Works Minister Michael Fortier, a Conservative senator, to run here — however, he declined. Fortier was appointed to the Senate and the Cabinet to represent Greater Montreal, which elected no Conservatives in the last federal election. Fortier pledged to resign from the Senate and seek election to the House of Commons in the next federal election. Instead, the Conservative candidate was Stéphane Bourgon, a lawyer.

The Bloc Québécois, of which Sauvageau was a member, ran Raymond Gravel, a Roman Catholic priest. The New Democratic Party 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.

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.. CTV News, July 28, 2007. 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.. CTV News, August 11, 2007.

Outremont The riding of Outremont was left vacant by the resignation of Liberal Party MP Jean Lapierre. The by-election resulted in a victory for the New Democratic Party on a substantial swing, whose candidate Thomas Mulcair became only the second New Democrat ever elected from Quebec and the first in seventeen years. The Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot by-election and the Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean by-election 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 political analyst with Quebec television network TVA and Montreal radio station 98.5 FM. The Prime Minister of Canada has six months to call by-elections, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the by-election on the last possible day, July 28.

Candidates Finally, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion appointed candidate Jocelyn Coulon on July 18. Prior to his current position as an international affairs expert, professor at the University of Montreal and director of the Francophone Research Network on the Operations of Peace (Reseau francophone de recherche sur les operations de paix), Coulon was a journalist for Le Devoir and a director of the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre's Montreal campus.

The Liberal announcement was not without controversy, and was condemned by Jewish lobby group B'nai Brith, even asking for the nomination to be revoked. The group cited Coulon's views on Israel, the United States and Hamas as being "out of step with current Liberal policy." The 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 New Democratic Party, third place in 2006, selected Thomas Mulcair. Mulcair is a former Liberal Member of the National Assembly of Quebec. He served as Jean Charest's Minister of the Environment from 2003 to 2006, leaving cabinet amidst the controversy surrounding privatisation plans for Mont Orford provincial park. He was the MNA for Chomedey in Laval, Quebec 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. He currently serves as the NDP's Quebec spokesperson. Mulcair was nominated in an uncontested race on June 21 as the NDP candidate.

The Conservatives selected former Ambassador Gilles Duguay. Mr. Duguay is a former Rhodes scholar of Oxford University in Great Britain, former law professor at the National University in Kinshasa, author of much of Rwanda's constitution, former ambassador to Cameroon, Morocco, Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova, and former professor at McGill University and the University of Montreal.

The Green Party, fifth place in 2006, reselected their 2006 candidate, François Pilon, while the Canadian Action Party selected biochemistry student Alexandre Amirizian. The newly formed neorhino.ca, successor to the Rhinoceros Party of Canada, fielded party founder François Gourd on August 7. Gourd wished to finish last in the election.

Several Independent politicians also announced their candidacy, including Romain Angeles, who is running on a platform to abolish political parties; Mahmood Raza Baig, a former Canadian Action candidate in Repentigny and Papineau; Régent Millette, an Independent in Outremont in 2006; John Turmel, record holder for most elections contested and for the most elections lost; and Jocelyne Leduc.

Results

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2006 Results

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.

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, 2007PartyCandidateVotes%+/– Conservative PartyDenis Lebel17,46359.7+22.5 Liberal PartyLouise Boulanger2,7959.6+1.8New Democratic PartyÉric Dubois6752.3–3.2 Total 29,262 100Conservative Party gain from Bloc Québécois

2006 Results

Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot

The by-election in Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, resulting from the resignation of Yvan Loubier, was won by BQ candidate Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac, Loubier's former constituency assistant and the first Vietnamese Canadian ever elected to the House of Commons of Canada. However, Thi Lac's 1,478-vote margin of victory over Conservative candidate Bernard Barré was the narrowest victory for the BQ since the party first won the riding in the 1993 election. As in the other two ridings up for election, the Liberals were shut out; their candidate, Jean Caumartin, placed fourth, after the NDP's Brigitte Sansoucy.

Results

Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot by-election, September 17, 2007PartyCandidateVotes%+/- Conservative PartyBernard Barré11,96537.5+12.7%New Democratic PartyBrigitte Sansoucy2,5387.9+2.4% Liberal PartyJean Caumartin2,3767.4-2.4%Michel St-Onge610.2 Total 31,936

2006 Results

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

By-elections to the 39th Canadian Parliament

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