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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Byelection win gives Tories another seat in House

By: David Akin

10/11/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

ANDREW VAUGHAN / THE CANADIAN PRESS Enlarge Image

Scott Armstrong is greeted by interim Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative leader Karen Casey after winning federal byelection on Monday.

OTTAWA -- The federal Conservatives picked up another seat in the House of Commons Monday, winning one of four byelections held in B.C., Quebec and Nova Scotia.

Conservative Scott Armstrong easily held off a challenge from the New Democrats in the rural Nova Scotia riding of Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley, a seat most recently held by independent MP Bill Casey.

The Bloc Québécois was the favourite to win the two vacant seats in Quebec but the Conservatives are poised for an upset win in one of them. The NDP candidate was believed to be the favourite in the vacant New Westminster, B.C., riding. Polls in those provinces closed at 8:30 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. PT respectively.

Indeed, in early results, Conservative candidate Bernard Genereux and Bloc candidate Nancy Gagnon were trading leads in the rural Quebec riding of Montmagny-L'Islet-Kamouraska-Riviere-du-Loup with 60 of 257 polls reporting. In the Montreal-area riding of Hochelaga, former Parti Québécois cabinet minister Daniel Paille jumped out to a strong early lead with more than half of all votes cast after 40 of 219 polls had reported.

Poll-by-poll vote results were released by Elections Canada beginning at 10 p.m. ET.

In Nova Scotia, where polls closed at 8:30 p.m. AT, Armstrong jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.

Armstrong had been Casey's campaign manager in last fall's general election. Casey was a member of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative caucus until early in 2007 when Casey voted against his own government's budget on the belief the federal government was shortchanging Nova Scotia on transfer payments. Casey sat as an independent until his retirement earlier this year.

-- Canwest News Service

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 10, 2009 A10

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