Continuing the nomination mise-à-jour into la belle province, let's start with the Bloc Québécois:

• Laurentides – Labelle, QC - Four-term Bloc M.P. Johanne Deschamps was renominated by acclamation this past September 13, although I only just discovered the event and have only now added her to the database. A recent Globe and Mail story by Daniel Leblanc after the by-elections questioned whether nominating former political aides (supposedly weak candidates) was behind the Bloc's recent loss in the MIKR by-election. However while Deschamps, who is also a former Constituency Assistant, lost on her first try for public office in 2000, she was elected in 2004 and has been re-elected twice since then. So far, she's facing a nominated Green Party opponent, first-time candidate François Beauchamp who was acclaimed on August 31, but no others.
• Charlesbourg – Haute-Saint-Charles, QC - Meanwhile in a seat lost to the Conservatives in 2006 when two-term M.P. Daniel Petit defeated three-term Bloc M.P. Richard Marceau, the BQ nominated 29-year old University of Ottawa doctoral candidate in political science and union delegate, Félix Grenier, by acclamation on October 4.
• Rivière-du-Nord, QC - And, finally, this past Saturday November 22, 15-year six-term Bloc M.P. Monique Guay was to have been renominated in her riding, located next door to Laurentides – Labelle, according to the calendar entry on the Bloc Québécois web-site.
• Joliette, QC - With his spouse's by-election campaign now out of the way and three of his opponents already in place, four-term M.P. Pierre Paquette has now scheduled his nomination meeting in this north-shore riding for Sunday, November 29. He will be rejoining 2008 Liberal, NDP and Green candidates Suzie St-Onge, Francine Raynault, and Annie Durette on the campaign trail, along with a Conservative candidate to be named later. Paquette has been elected with 52-62% of the vote since 2000, when he took over the seat from another Bloc M.P. René Laurin.
• Jonquière – Alma, QC - Another Bloc nomination meeting has been scheduled for Monday, December 6 in the riding of four-term Conservative M.P. Jean-Pierre Blackburn (only two of Blackburn's terms are presently in the database, the other two having run from 1984-1993). I currently have no information as to who is running for the Bloc, however the victor will face first-time Liberal candidate Bianka Villeneuve, Green candidate France Bergeron, and a New Democrat to be named later.

So for the Bloc Québécois, they will have 31 of their 48 incumbent MPs renominated by the end of November. The 17 not yet renominated include:

• the Dean of the Commons, Louis Plamondon, in Bas-Richelieu – Nicolet – Bécancour, who was first elected in 1984
• the oldest M.P. in the Commons, Christian Ouellet, in Brome – Missisquoi, who was born in 1934 and is thus 75 years old
  
• three-term M.P. Yvon Lévesque in Abitibi – Baie-James – Nunavik – Eeyou, who was rumoured earlier this summer to be facing a nomination challenge from someone out of the labour movement, although Lévesque wanted to run again and the nomination meeting was slated for five days after any election call
  
• class of 1993 veteran M.P. Francine Lalonde in La Pointe-de-l'Île, a great lady who has been battling cancer and I hope she wins
• three-term M.P. Nicole Demers in Laval, another Member who has also fought cancer recently; along with other long-serving MPs ...
  
• Leader Gilles Duceppe in Laurier – Sainte-Marie, who was first elected as an independent in 1990
• another class of 1993 veteran, Christiane Gagnon in Québec riding, and
  
• a class of 1998 by-election winner, Serge Cardin in Sherbrooke

The remaining nine were all elected in 2004 or later, save for Bernard Bigras in Rosemont – La Petite-Patrie, who was elected at a very young age in 1997 and shows no signs of stopping now, and indeed is already renominated.

Apart from the ridings mentioned at the top of this post, the party has also nominated early in the following non-incumbent seats (already written up here at Pundits' Guide, so I'm just doing a quick overview here):

• Haute-Gaspésie – La Mitis – Matane – Matapédia, QC - where incumbent Bloc M.P. Jean-Yves Roy, who was narrowly reelected over a strong Liberal candidate in 2008, signalled some time ago that he would not be running for re-election; along with
• Bourassa, QC - currently held by Liberal M.P. Denis Coderre
• Laval – Les Îles, QC - currently held by Liberal M.P. Raymonde Folco, who had been on Coderre's list of M.P.s he wanted to segue into early retirement
• Mégantic – L'Érable, QC - currently held by Conservative M.P. Christian Paradis, and where the Liberals have already cycled through one candidate over the asbestos issue, and
  
• Portneuf – Jacques-Cartier, QC - where leader Gilles Duceppe has made no secret of his intention to target Independent M.P. André Arthur, whom the Bloc nearly knocked off last time when the Conservatives decided not to run against him. M. Arthur has also gone a round with cancer in the past, but last I read was planning to run again.
• Brossard – La Prairie, QC - In addition, former one-term Bloc M.P. Marcel Lussier appears to be planning to run again in one of Québec's closest four-way seats from last time, according to this notice of a recent riding get-together. However, he does not appear to be renominated as yet.
  

We'll continue tomorrow with the other parties in Québec, and then keep moving west. To send along nomination news, jot us a note here.

Labels: 41st General Election Nominations, Bloc Québécois