Canadian federal by-elections, 2006

Two federal by-elections were held in Canada on November 27, 2006, to fill vacancies in the Canadian House of Commons. 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.

-
Glen Pearson
align="right"|13,285
align="right"|34.86%
align="right"|-5.25%
align="right"|$77,463
-
Elizabeth May
align="right"|9,845
align="right"|25.84%
align="right"|+20.35%
align="right"|$83,392
-
Dianne Haskett
align="right"|9,327
align="right"|24.48%
align="right"|-5.42%
align="right"|$78,622
-
Megan Walker
align="right"|5,365
align="right"|14.08%
align="right"|-9.67%
align="right"|$86,282
-
Steven Hunter
align="right"|146
align="right"|0.38%
align="right"|-0.09%
align="right"|$1,805
-
Robert Ede
align="right"|78
align="right"|0.20%
align="right"|-
align="right"|$0.00
-
Will Arlow
align="right"|53
align="right"|0.14%
align="right"|-
align="right"|$2,207
- bgcolor="white"
align="left" colspan=3|Total
align="right"|38,099
align="right"|100.00%
align="right"

=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. [ [http://www.canadaeast.com/cp/national/article2.php?articleID=58097] ] 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 he did not complete and submit paperwork to Elections Canada 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.

References