I'm on cottage-time here, where everything moves a little more slowly in the nomination news department. However, as things have really piled up and a few significant nominations have occurred over the past few days, it's time for me to smarten up and get with it; starting with the most recent nominations in the prospective by-election seats:

• Hochelaga, QC - The NDP did, as expected, renominate their 2008 candidate Jean-Claude Rocheleau here on Monday. Rocheleau is the president of the east island refinery workers' local of the CEP, and embodies the NDP's continuing efforts to encroach on the Bloc Québecois' support in the Québec labour movement. The riding is currently represented by long-time Bloc M.P. Réal Ménard, who has announced that he will be resigning effective Wednesday September 16 (the first caucus meeting of the fall sitting of Parliament), in order to run for Montréal city council in the municipal elections taking place this November 1. A political scientist, Ménard has won the riding handily since 1993 when he defeated one-term Conservative M.P. Alan Koury (who himself replaced one-term Conservative M.P. Edouard Désrosiers in 1988). Prior to 1984 the riding was represented by then-Liberal M.P. (and current Liberal Senator) Serge Joyal.
• New Westminster – Coquitlam, BC - Ken Beck Lee won the contested Liberal nomination over Gerry Lenoski here last night, according to the LeftCoast.ca blog. Curiously (well to me, anyway), voting was conducted without the benefit of candidate speeches (although as my partner has pointed out to me before, politicos like political speeches a LOT more than pretty much the rest of the voting public, so what do I know). Lee is a civil engineer and member of the Korean Cultural Heritage Society of Canada, and is a first-time candidate for the Liberal Party. The BC federal Liberal association had earlier set up a byelectionbc.ca website, with biographies of both candidates. More background here from the Burnaby Politics blog, where a commenter claims that Lee had signed up 1000 members, although a reader tells me that there were around 380 ballots cast last night. The riding was vacated by three-term NDP M.P. Dawn Black (one of them from 1988-1993, not yet in this database), who stepped down to run provincially in the spring, after defeating Korean-Canadian Conservative candidate (and now-Senator) Yonah Martin in the last general election. Already nominated are the NDP's Fin Donnelly, Rebecca Helps for the Green Party, and most recently Diana Dilworth for the Conservatives.
• Windsor – Tecumseh, ON - Thanks to a reader for writing to confirm that the Conservative riding association here renominated Ms. Ghanam by acclamation last June 5, after conducting their candidate search process in May. Ms. Ghanam is a management consultant and lecturer in the business school at the University of Windsor. She captured second place in 2008 against the NDP's four-term M.P. Joe Comartin, moving ahead of the Liberals in this riding once held by the late Liberal M.P. Shaughnessy Cohen.
• Markham – Unionville, ON - Long-time Markham city councillor Gordon Landon was acclaimed last Thursday as the Conservative candidate in this riding north of Toronto, the Georgina Advocate reports. The first-time federal candidate will be facing four-term Liberal M.P. John McCallum, who has won the riding handily since the 2000 election, when he replaced the then-lone Ontario Progressive Conservative M.P. Jim Jones.
  
• Halton, ON - Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has appointed businesswoman Deborah Gillis as his candidate here, according to a weekend Liberal news release, and interestingly has done so over the heads of two green-lighted candidates (Air Canada pilot Rohit Dhamija and George Brown College VOIP professor Sheref El Sabawy) and one other prospective candidate (former provincial Liberal candidate Gary Zemlak), as noted on the Liberal Scarf blog citing a recent story from the Oakville Beaver. As blogger Will Norman observes: "Gillis was mentioned nowhere in the article, which was written on July 31st .... The article contains a quote by the riding President that is very interesting in light of Gillis being appointed: 'Riding association president Steve Savage said there is no hurry to settle on a candidate as there is no election on the horizon'. Evidently Ignatieff must see at least the shape of an election on the horizon, unless he wouldn't have appointed a candidate (which I believe is the first time Ignatieff has used the leader's power to appoint, but I might be mistaken.)". I haven't seen any other reports of Mr. Ignatieff appointing candidates either, and believe Mr. Norman is correct in that observation. Meanwhile, former Conservative-turned-Liberal Halton M.P. Garth Turner was not amongst Liberal candidates seeking to be green-lighted according to Ontario Federal Liberal executive director Judi Longfield, as quoted in the Oakville Beaver story, but blogger Norman believes that the Dufferin – Caledon, ON rumour we reported on earlier for Turner might still be viable.
  
• Newmarket – Aurora, ON - The same Liberal news release touted other women candidates including lawyer and King Township Mayor Margaret Black who it says will be acclaimed on August 12 in this riding north of Toronto. As pointed out by the Liberal Scarf, this means that nomination candidate and Newmarket councillor Chris Emanuel must have dropped out of the race quite recently, as all evidence pointed to his continuing to run as of when the release was issued. We earlier reported on his candidacy here, along with the withdrawal of 2008 Liberal candidate Tim Jones in favour of endorsing Ms. Black. A bit more here from the King Township Sentinel. The riding is currently held by first-time Conservative M.P. Lois Brown, who won it on the retirement from politics of Conservative-turned-Liberal M.P. Belinda Stronach.

The Monday Liberal news release announced four Ontario women candidates in total, including two already reported here some time ago (Christine Innes in Trinity – Spadina, ON and Kimberley Love in Bruce – Grey – Owen Sound, ON). The Toronto Star's Susan Delacourt is also reporting from cottage country on her blog that Green Party Elizabeth May continues to muse on her chances of running in the latter riding as well. By the way, I need to track down the correct spelling of Ms. Love's first name, as the Liberal Party spelled it "ey", while the Meaford Express story from three weeks ago just had it as "y". If anyone can clarify, please drop me a line.

Besides Newmarket – Aurora, ON as mentioned above, a number of other Ontario Liberal nomination meetings have recently been announced on that PTA's website, namely:

• Tue 11 Aug - Thunder Bay – Superior North, ON - 3 candidates contesting (Don McArthur, Yves Fricot, Joe Virdiramo)
  
• Wed 12 Aug - Ancaster – Dundas – Flamborough – Westdale, ON - former CHCH-TV anchor Dan McLean and ?former 2008 candidate Arlene MacFarlane-VanderBeek?
  
• Thu 13 Aug - Chatham-Kent – Essex, ON - a contest pitting the sons of 2 former Liberal MPs: Matt Daudlin and Steve Pickard
  
• Fri 14 Aug - Essex, ON - no information (if you can help, jot me a note)
  

OK, now on to other nomination news:

• Gaspésie – Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC - Another good catch by the Liberal Scarf blog, who came across a clipping from Le Soleil about Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's recent trip to the Gaspésie with returning candidate Nancy Charest of neighbouring Haute-Gaspésie – La Mitis – Matane – Matapédia, QC, which also reported Quebec lieutenant Denis Coderre's preference for the return of 2008 Liberal candidate Denis Gauvreau in this riding currently held by two-term Bloc Québécois M.P. Raynald Blais. Gauvreau moved his party back into second-place last time, past former Progressive Conservative M.P. and Conservative candidate Darryl L. Gray.
  
• Richmond – Arthabaska, QC - From La Nouvelle / L'Union in Victoriaville, we learn that Louis Bérubé, the business development manager for the Caisse populaire in l'Érable, will be running for the Liberal nomination here, and has the support of 2008 candidate Gwyneth Helen Grant. Liberal Québec lieutenant Denis Coderre will be attending the nomination meeting next Monday, August 10. The riding is currently held by three-term Bloc Québécois M.P. André Bellavance.
• Ottawa Centre, ON - The NDP has scheduled its nomination meeting here for Monday, September 28. Two-term incumbent NDP M.P. Paul Dewar is expected to run once again. Meantime the Liberal nomination race appears to be down to Scott Bradley and Janet Yale, although no meeting date has been set there yet. The Greens already have 2008 candidate Jennifer Hunter back in place for the next election, and no names or plans have yet surfaced from the Conservatives.
  
• Northumberland – Quinte West, ON - A third candidate has decided to enter the contested Liberal nomination race in this eastern Ontario riding, reports NorthumberlandToday.com. The Mayor of Brighton, (Ms.) Chris Herrington, will be joining Kim Rudd and Andrew McFadyen (previously reported on here). No meeting date has been set to my knowledge. The riding is currently held by two-term Conservative M.P. Rick Norlock, and the Green Party has already nominated its candidate Stan Grizzle.
  
• Welland, ON - Thanks for a reader for pointing out this clipping from the Welland Tribune running down the parties' election preparations in this Niagara-region riding, and reporting the Conservative nomination meeting as set for Thursday, September 17. 2008 candidate Alfred Kiers (who previously ran under the Christian Heritage Party banner in neighbouring Erie – Lincoln, ON in 1997) is apparently set to run for the Conservative nomination once again, but may yet be joined by several others in a contest. Area Liberals have already renominated former long-time M.P. John Maloney. The riding is currently represented by first-time NDP M.P. Malcolm Allen who defeated Maloney in the 2nd closest 3-way race of last fall's general election.
• Esquimalt – Juan de Fuca, BC - According to CFAX-1070AM, area Greens have now opened up nominations in this riding, part of whose provincial equivalent was recently contested by their provincial leader Jane Sterk in the last B.C. election. The riding is currently held by long-time M.P. Keith Martin for the Liberals. Conservatives recently renominated their 2008 candidate Troy deSouza as well. The NDP has yet to pick a candidate in this riding, once held for a term by former NDP premier Dave Barrett, but usually runs strongly as well here, in a riding that's seen more than its share of close 3-way races.
  

In other Green Party nomination news, a reader writes to say that the party had screened 114 candidates by July 31, most in ridings that already have electoral district associations (EDAs) in place.

OK, I think that covers everything for now. If you have nomination news I missed (or sent me any nomination news I forgot to cover, for which I apologize in advance), please do send a note along so I can include it in the next update. Then follow along on Twitter for the latest counts and updates.

Labels: 41st General Election Nominations, Conservatives, Greens, Hochelaga, Liberals, NDP, New Westminster – Coquitlam