daveberta in outremont.

Last weekend, I spent the last days of my six weeks in la belle provence of Québec on the island of Montreal.

Along with going to check out the Tamtams, I also took a walk through the streets of Outremont, where a federal by-election happens to be occuring.

Being a good political blogger, I tried to play the game of "spot the campaign sign." Unfortunately, I was only able to spot two candidate's campaign signs on the streets of Outremont...

NDP candidate Thomas Mulcair

Bloc Quebecois candidate Jean-Paul Gilson

I found it quite interesting that neither Federal Liberal candidate Jocelyn Coulon or Conservative candidate Gilles Duguay had signage posted for their candidacy, especially since the riding was vacated by former Liberal MP Jean LaPierre (then again...). The 2006 election saw Jean LaPierre gain 35% of the vote compared to 28% for Bloc Quebecois candidate Jacques Leonard, 17% for NDP candidate Leo-Paul Lauzon, and 12% for Conservative candidate Daniel Fournier. With this kind of vote split in a General Election, it should be interesting to see how voters in Outremont will vote in the September 17, 2007 by-election.

Also, having spent the past 5 weeks in the Saguenay-Lac-St. Jean region of Quebec, I think we could see some interesting results from the Roberval–Lac-St-Jean by-election to replace former Bloc MP Michel Gauthier. More on this in another post.

(and yes, I can see that the Thomas Mulcair sign is sideways)