OK, thanks everyone for your patience. I'm not leaving this computer today until we get all caught up on the nomination news. Working from east to west, we got as far as the Golden Horseshoe last time, but now I need to double-back to Newfoundland and start up again, and it just seems more manageable to do it by regions this time. Ready? OK, here we go starting with the Atlantic:

• St. John's South – Mount Pearl, NL - Former VOCM Nightline talk-show host Ryan Cleary, who ran for the NDP in 2008, has recently stepped down from his radio show and announced that he will run for the NDP nomination in this riding once again. One Ottawa Liberal blogger is claiming that Mr. Cleary was fired by VOCM, but the reference he cites is an audio-tape on YouTube featuring a VO telephone receptionist saying Cleary "is no longer with the company as of yesterday" followed by 20-30 seconds of dead air. Meantime, St. John's blogger Polemic and Paradox has penned several posts discussing Cleary's non-renewal of his contract with VOCM, which have been heavily commented on. I wish I could provide you with hard news sources, but the CBC interview with Cleary linked to by Polemic and Paradox is no longer available. Cleary came within 2.8% of the vote (5.1 votes per poll) of passing first-time Liberal M.P. Siobhan Coady in the riding vacated by retiring Conservative M.P. Loyola Hearn. The riding has been a source of heartbreak for the NDP before, in a 2000 by-election, where NDP candidate and former Codco performer Greg Malone came within 356 votes (1.6 votes per poll) of besting Hearn when the latter was first sent to Ottawa.
  
• Cumberland – Colchester – Musquodoboit Valley, NS - The contested Liberal nomination between 2008 candidate Tracy Parsons and farmer Jim Burrows will be decided on Sunday, September 12, the Truro Daily News is reporting. I just added a Google Map to the "Vacant Riding Watch" section of the main page, showing this riding in relation to the other Nova Scotia ridings, in case you missed it. Already nominated there are Conservative candidate Scott Armstrong and new Christian Heritage Party leader Jim Hnatiuk. New Democrats who attended the recent Halifax convention were surprised not to hear news of who their party's candidate might be, but did learn that it won't be Alexis MacDonald unless the by-election is delayed until 2010, as she will be leaving shortly for a six-month working visit to Africa on behalf of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. MacDonald ran second against Peter MacKay twice in Central Nova, NS, but then lost the NDP nomination for Halifax riding to Megan Leslie in 2008. She had been rumoured to be a likely candidate for the by-election in NDP circles down east.
• Halifax, NS - Speaking of Halifax riding, the Liberal nomination race there between Dalhousie University Medicine Faculty member Stan Kutcher and businessman Chris Crowell will be decided at a meeting on Tuesday, September 22. The competition has been hotly contested on the web, Twitter, Facebook and at multiple social events. As mentioned above, first-time NDP M.P. Megan Leslie retained this riding for her party on the retirement of former M.P. and one-time party leader Alexa McDonough.
  
• Miramichi, NB - Thanks to commenter the506 for passing along this clipping from the Miramichi Leader, which reports the announced candidacy of Keith Vickers for the Liberal nomination against first-time Conservative M.P. Tilly O'Neill-Gordon. Vickers joins two candidates already in the race: Véronique Arsenault, formerly of the Chamber of Commerce, and former Miramichi Mayor John McKay. The riding is home to the long-gun registry, and was recently visited by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. O'Neill-Gordon defeated former Liberal M.P. Charles Hubbard (and Vickers' former boss) by just over 5% of the vote, in a situation of declining turnout mainly at the Liberals' expense. Never a big spending candidate, Hubbard spent just 38% of the limit (down from 42% and 46% in 2004 and 2006), while O'Neill-Gordon spent 70% of the limit, down from the 86% spent in 2006 by predecessor Michael Morrison, but up from the 49% he spent in 2004.

That's all the news from the Atlantic provinces for now, but there is a lot to report from Québec, which we'll cover in the next post.

Labels: 41st General Election Nominations, Liberals, NDP