Before we return to general nomination news in Québéc, news from one of the vacant ridings:

• Montmagny – L'Islet – Kamouraska – Rivière-du-Loup, QC - Long-time Bloc Québécois political aide and one-time Parti Québécois candidate Nancy Gagnon has met with the local riding association, reports the Kamouraska community tv station, and emerged to announce that she will be seeking her party's nomination for the forthcoming election (or by-election, whichever comes first). No word on when the nomination meeting will be held, or who else might be running, although it does seem that by this point we likely would have heard if former Bloc M.P. Paul Crête (who stepped down for an unsuccessful provincial run this past spring) was interested in running again himself. The soon-to-be-retiring Mayor of La Pocatière, Bernard Généreux appears to be the leading candidate for the Conservative nomination there ... and may even be nominated already, although I haven't found any evidence of it yet ... and 2008 Liberal candidate Jean Bouchard is said to be thinking about running again.
  

We earlier reported on some brewing developments in Conservative nomination news in Québec, and since then 9 candidates have been announced, 7 on Friday and a further 2 Monday, including the names we had heard about late last week. Thanks to a reader for sending these links along. The candidates are:

• Gaspésie – Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC - Régent Bastien, a teacher and former mayor of Paspébiac, will be running against three-term Bloc Québécois M.P. Raynald Blais in this far-eastern Québec riding.
  
• Bas-Richelieu – Nicolet – Bécancour, QC - Further down the south shore, Réjean Bériault, a manager in the real estate business, will be running against the dean of the House of Commons, long-time Bloc Québécois M.P. Louis Plamondon. Plamondon was recently feted on his 25th anniversary in the Commons, having been first elected as a Conservative M.P. in the 1984 sweep. The word I have heard from that shindig is that he has every intention of running again.
  
• Berthier – Maskinongé, QC - Across the river from him, former political aide and businesswoman, Marie-Claude Godue who ran in 2008, has been nominated to stand again, and will face three-term Bloc Québécois M.P. Guy André and recently nominated Liberal candidate Francine Gaudet. Godue placed second here last time in the last two elections, moving ahead of the Liberals, although their vote shares started to balance out a bit by 2008.
  
• Saint-Bruno – Saint-Hubert, QC - Municipal councillor and 2008 candidate Nicole Charbonneau Barron is set to run again in this south shore riding across from Montréal. The riding is currently held by three-term Bloc Québécois M.P. Carole Lavallée, and area Liberals recently nominated their candidate, Michel Picard, as well. The Conservatives placed second here in 2006, but dropped to third under Godue in 2008.
  
• Saint-Lambert, QC - Qais Hamidi, of Afghani background, runs a professional services firm that works with governments overseas, and is taking up the Conservative mantle in this neighbouring south shore riding. The seat is currently held by Josée Beaudin, who retained it for her party during a lengthy by-election campaign that was eventually cancelled and superceded by last year's fall general election. The Liberals also recently renominated their 2008 candidate Roxanne Stanners.
  
• Brossard – La Prairie, QC - Maurice Brossard, a businessman and former teacher, ran one riding further west, which saw a surprising upset last fall as first-time Liberal M.P. Alexandra Mendès defeated one-term Bloc Québécois M.P. Marcel Lussier, who had in turn defeated former Liberal M.P. Jacques Saada two years earlier. Mr. Brossard's almost 20% vote share, along with a reasonably strong performance by first-time NDP candidate pharmacist Hoang Mai last time (13%) turned the riding into a mathematical four-way race in 2008, in addition to meeting the criteria for a close two-way race for the last 3 elections running. Mai was one of the Québec candidates featured in the NDP's convention video, and can probably therefore be assumed to be running again as well.
  
• Laurier – Sainte-Marie, QC - Charles K. Langford, a UQAM prof in managerial sciences and his party's 2008 candidate in this east Montréal riding held by Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, will be carrying his party's banner once again.
  
• Outremont, QC - Rodolphe Husny, a student, chartered accountant an auditor, blogger and Junior Chamber of Commerce member, will represent his party in this central Montréal riding held by two-term NDP M.P. Thomas Mulcair. [UPDATE: Apologies; I seem to have read that news release incorrectly, and appreciate the reader getting in touch to straighten me out.]
  
• Vaudreuil – Soulanges, QC - Labour lawyer Claude-Marc Boudreau is going to pick up where Michel Fortier left off in this riding, and will face three-term Bloc Québécois M.P. Meili Feille.
  

I've also just noticed a couple of newly posted Conservative nominations from August at the Elections Canada website:

• Cape Breton – Canso, NS - New Conservative candidate Clarence Derrick Kennedy was nominated by acclamation on August 5, 2009, according to Elections Canada. He will face four-term Liberal M.P. Rodger Cuzner.
  
• Etobicoke – Lakeshore, ON - First-time candidate Bernard Trottier also won his nomination by acclamation on August 10, 2009 Elections Canada reports. Trottier will be replacing former Progressive Conservative M.P. Patrick Boyer who ran last time against two-term Liberal M.P. and party leader Michael Ignatieff.
  

In New Brunswick news (h/t the Liberal Scarf):

• Saint John, NB - Paul Zed is still not saying whether he plans to run for the Liberal nomination or not, however the Liberal riding president says no nomination meeting will be held here now until election is called, reported the Telegraph-Journal earlier this week. In other news from the same story ...
  
• Miramichi, NB - A fourth candidate is now in the running for the Liberal nomination in this riding, which was snatched from them when first-time Conservative M.P. Tilly O'Neill-Gordon defeated long-time Liberal M.P. Charles Hubbard lasat fall. We earlier reported three candidates who were in the race: Hubbard's former aide Keith Vickers, Véronique Arsenault, who recently stepped down as Chamber of Commerce executive director, and former Miramichi Mayor John McKay, and they've now been joined in the frey by Rob Hutchison (no biographical information available).
  
• New Brunswick Southwest, NB - Long-time Greg Thompson tells the Telegraph-Journal that he is nominated and will be running again in what will be his 8th election. No other party candidates have been mentioned in this riding as yet.
  

Some upcoming new Liberal nomination meetings:

• Sat 12 Sep - Burnaby – Douglas, BC - Thanks to a reader for drawing our attention to this recently-scheduled meeting, where it appears that 2008 Vancouver East Liberal candidate Ken Low will be unopposed for the Liberal nomination. The riding is currently held by three-term NDP M.P. Bill Siksay, who took over the seat from his former boss long-time NDP M.P. Svend Robinson after the latter's legal difficulties forced him to resign just before the 2004 election. While Robinson had been one of the only two NDP incumbents to hang on in 1993, the riding has in fact been settled by less than 5% between New Democrats and either the Liberals or Conservative/Alliance candidates since 2000, but has also met the mathematical criteria for a 3-way race in all but one of those elections as well. Low's candidacy appears to spell the end of the 3-election effort by BC Liberal insider Bill Cunningham to take the seat. Cunningham came tantalizingly close to Siksay in 2004 and 2006, but fell to third place behind Conservative candidate Ronald Leung in 2008.
  
• Sun 13 Sep - West Vancouver – Sunshine Coast – Sea to Sky Country, BC - A tip of the hat to the Liberal Scarf blog for this clipping from the North Shore News, which reports that Daniel Veniez will indeed be acclaimed as the Liberal candidate, as we reported here earlier, at a meeting now scheduled for the night before the House of Commons is set to return. The riding is currently held by first-time Conservative M.P. John Weston, who reclaimed it for his party from one-term Liberal-turned-Green M.P. Blair Wilson, who in turn had narrowly picked up the seat the time before following the retirement of former Conservative M.P. John Reynolds. While Wilson had nearly caught up with Reynolds in 2004, and just narrowly moved ahead of Weston in 2006 to pick up the seat, Weston won it quite decisively in 2008, due in part to Wilson's very public legal disputes and subsequent change in party allegiance, which skewed the 2008 results.
• Tue 15 Sep - Victoria, BC - The earlier reader also advises that Oak Bay Mayor Chris Causton will almost certainly be acclaimed as the Liberal candidate here next Tuesday, and will be facing two-term NDP M.P. Denise Savoie.
  
• Sun 20 Sep - Burlington, ON - Another reader was kind enough to pass along the date of the upcoming Liberal nomination meeting in this Golden Horseshoe riding just east of Hamilton, where former Liberal M.P. Paddy Torsney will be running again. Once nominated, she'll be trying for a third time to defeat the two-term Conservative M.P. who defeated her in 2006, Mike Wallace.
  

In other BC news:

• North Vancouver, BC - The North Shore News story above also confirms that former Liberal M.P. Don Bell is indeed considering another federal run in his former seat, which he lost to first-time Conservative M.P. Andrew Saxton in 2008 after serving two terms. Since then, he ran unsuccessfully for a BC Liberal nomination in the recent provincial election. The federal riding has been settled by just under or just over 5% in each of the last three elections. No meeting date has been set as yet.
• Saanich – Gulf Islands, BC - It's almost anti-climactic to report that Green Party Elizabeth May finally announced what everyone has known since August 9, namely that she would be running in this Vancouver Island/Gulf Islands riding in the next election. Of course, she'll have to win her party's nomination first at a meeting now scheduled for September 19 (challenger Stuart Hertzog's candidacy was just approved by the party last week, reports CFAX radio), and will learn the name of her Liberal opponent a week earlier on September 12 when the contested nomination between Kit Spence and Renée Hetherington is resolved. Thanks to a reader for letting us know that the NDP was likely to call its nomination meeting some time this week for a date in several weeks' time. Edith Loring-Kuhanga, the president of First Nations Training & Consulting Services and a Saanich School District Trustee is apparently running, and the reader says there may be several others surfacing yet. Ms. Loring-Kuhanga is Gitksan and originally from Hazelton. If successful, she would be the third nominated first nations or métis candidate for the NDP so far. There does seem to be a higher count of aboriginal candidates from all the parties so far this election cycle, which if my early observation bears out for the rest of the nomination season, is a most welcome development.
  

OK, that's all there's time for tonight. I still owe a big update on Green Party candidates, but it's difficult because they don't post all the details I need, and so they have to be researched one at a time, although I'm grateful to the readers who are helping me with that. The next few weeks are going to be really busy for nomination news, so believe me, every bit of help is greatly appreciated. It will also take me a day or so to get the new Conservative candidates entered into the database, so please stand by.

If you have nomination news or hear of potential candidates, why not get in touch, and help keep this database as up-to-date as possible. Then follow along @punditsguide on Twitter.

Labels: 41st General Election Nominations, Bloc Québécois, Conservatives, Greens, Liberals, Montmagny – L'Islet – Kamouraska – Rivière-du-Loup, NDP