Pundits' Guide

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Political junkies will be able to fix soon – an autumn round of by-elections is set to kick off some time after September 11, although Etobicoke Centre seems less and less likely to be one of them.

[See below for update on list of possible NDP candidates in Victoria.]

With Thursday's announcement by Deputy Speaker and Victoria, BC NDP M.P. Denise Savoie of her pending August 31 retirement, only the Supreme Court's ruling on Borys Wrzesnewskyj's petition to declare null and void the 26-vote Etobicoke Centre, ON win by Conservative Ted Opitz last year remains, before we know the full shape of the fall by-election calendar.

Still, the fact that the Supreme Court has yet to issue its ruling on Opitz's appeal tends to suggest that it is preparing to overturn the lower court ruling, as the reasons for upholding a lower court ruling would seem much faster to write than the reasons to overturn.

This leaves us with one riding where the top prize is the Conservative nomination (Calgary Centre, AB), one riding where the same could be said for the NDP (Victoria, BC), and one complete imponderable that probably would normally have been a Conservative-Liberal contest favouring the Conservatives in the past, but where the NDP came second in 2011, and the outgoing Conservative incumbent's record is of unknown importance to future voting intentions (Durham, ON).

Looking at the likely by-election dates:

Assuming the Prime Minister decides to wait and call all three by-elections at once, the first Monday that would accomodate all three would be Monday, October 22, two weeks after the Commons Thanksgiving break week, and three weeks before their November Remembrance Day break.

Now, if the Supreme Court were to uphold the lower court ruling and declare the May 2011 election in Etobicoke Centre null and void, similar by-election timeframes would apply to that riding as well. We do know that the 102-page transcript of the July 10 Supreme Court hearing of the appeal was completed on July 26, but not much else as to the timing of the ruling, though the Court is bound by the Elections Act to deal with it "without delay and in a summary way". The timing of the Court's rulings are usually signalled two days ahead of time by news release, and no such release has been issued since early August.

But assuming the Court ruled by the end of August, and if it upheld the lower court, then a notice of vacancy in Etobicoke Centre would go to the Commons Speaker, just like with a resignation, and then the 11 day wait before a by-election could be called would start to count down.

The last day to call the first riding that became vacant (Calgary Centre, AB) is 180 days after the Chief Electoral Officer received notice of the vacancy: so, Tuesday December 4. But a call that late would result in a winter by-election campaign straddling the Christmas-New Year's holiday, and is probably therefore out of the running.

Thus, I'm expecting a mid-September to mid-October call for between October 22 and November 26, in those three ridings.

As to possible candidates in Victoria, BC, several names are making the rounds in NDP circles tonight, including MLA and former leader Carole James (whose provincial riding would then be opened up for the current Mayor Dean Fortin, goes one theory), Mayor Dean Fortin himself, councillors Marianne Alto (a former federal treasurer of the NDP), Ben Isitt, or Pamela Madoff, or the northern Victoria MLA Rob Fleming, who attended Thursday's news conference with NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Savoie. Another name to include in the mix is 2008 Vancouver Centre candidate Michael Byers, who co-chaired Mulcair's leadership campaign in BC and now lives on Saltspring Island.

UPDATE: Lawyer Murray Rankin is another name being advanced for the NDP nomination. With a background in environmental and aboriginal law, he practices in both Vancouver and Victoria, but is affiliated with the University of Victoria where he is the co-chair of the Environmental Law Centre. Given Mulcair's strong support from the bench in the recent leadership race, Rankin is the kind of candidate who would easily fit that profile.

A likely candidate for the Liberal nomination would undoubtedly be the Victoria lawyer and federal leadership candidate David Merner — who as a sidebar is my guess for the identity of LiberalWho.ca. Merner is a bilingual Victoria lawyer who, when he worked for the Federal Justice Department in Ottawa, had spent considerable funds running for the provincial Liberal nomination in Ottawa Vanier, before Dalton McGuinty appointed Madeleine Meilleur instead. He has sinced moved to BC, becoming the president of the BC section of the Liberal Party (a position he stepped down from in late June to explore a leadership bid). He also sits on the board of LeadNow.ca, and has championed a Cullen-like platform of "cooperation", although we learn from Joseph Uranowski at the Equivocator blog that Merner's version does not involve co-operating with the NDP, but rather with the Greens and red tories, and even green tories ("conservation conservatives"). Anyways, the @QuiLiberalWho Twitter feed includes a retweet of an incident on Victoria's CTV station by Richard Madan, and was trying to engage BC Liberals like Dan Veniez (who has clearly been watching "The Newsroom") and a very impatient Jason Lamarche; plus the bullet-point questions being raised on LiberalWho.ca (already a very social media-savvy tease such as you'd expect from a LeadNow devotee) hit on themes like electoral cooperation, the environment, and the justice system, which have been staples of Merner's campaign to date. So, LiberalWho is probably from BC, and probably not Taleeb Noormohamed from North Vancouver, thus I conclude he is David Merner from Victoria. We'll see how well I guessed on September 3.

Another possible Liberal name for Victoria would have to be economist Paul Summerville, a supporter of Bob Rae's who was last seen running for Policy Chair of the Liberal Party at their January convention in Ottawa, though he had earlier run for the NDP in St. Paul's, ON in 2006, supported John Horgan for the provincial NDP leadership in BC, and taken a lawn sign for Savoie in the last election.

Thought not to be interested in another run is 2011 Liberal candidate and former mayor of Oak Bay, Chris Causton, nor his Conservative counterparty Patrick Hunt.

Names being brainstormed for the Conservatives at this early stage include Oak Bay MLA Ida Chong, and businessman Matt McNeill.

As to the Greens, they seem to be more focused on Calgary Centre, which both senior organizer Rob Hines and leader Elizabeth May are claiming they can win, apparently based on candidate selection.

The "Leadership Primary" – currently in the news as a proposal before next week's Liberal Party convention – has been tried before as a method of increasing media coverage of the succession in smaller parties, the most notable recent example being the Federal NDP in 1995, after their brutal rout in the 1993 general election.

The party organized a series of regional and labour primaries in advance of the convention, designed to give regional candidates a base from which to build, and as a way of screening out candidates who could not win at least one of the primaries from consideration at the party convention in October.

Four candidates entered the race, and all but author Herschel Hardin passed the one-primary or 25% overall vote threshold (Hardin penned a very interesting personal history of his journey in the race afterwards, excerpts of which can be found on his website here).

Long-time activist M.P. Svend Robinson won the Québec, Ontario, and BC/Northern primaries, while veteran M.P. (indeed veteran leadership candidate) Lorne Nystrom won the Prairie and Labour primaries, and former Nova Scotia NDP leader Alexa McDonough won the Atlantic primary. Given the preponderance of the NDP membership on the prairies at that time, Nystrom looked like the prohibitive front-runner at the end of that process.

But, the total primary vote bore no outcome to the result at the October 1995 convention. McDonough had won 18.5% of the vote or so during the primaries, and was considered to be out of the race.  However, she went on to command a sufficiently strong 32.5% vote amongst convention delegates (remembering that the convention was held in Ontario), leaving the first-place Robinson scrambling to beat Nystrom to the stage to claim credit for the inevitable outcome, once third-place Nystrom was dropped after the first ballot.

So, Nystrom won the primaries, Robinson won the first ballot, and McDonough won the leadership. And Herschel Hardin got a very interesting book out of it all.

Here are the detailed results:

1995 Federal NDP Leadership Primary Vote vs Convention Vote

Thanks to a friendly archivist for digging up the raw figures and sending them along. We'll review the other NDP leadership contest history in another post.

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For the latest on the NDP Leadership Race, don't forget to follow the half-hourly news updates, and social media tickers at the Pundits' Guide NDPLdr portal page:  http://ndpldr.punditsguide.ca

There are a lot of people more eloquent than me expressing their feelings about this tragically unfair loss to Canadian politics, and summarizing the remarkable career of this mould-breaking politician.

My way is to keep busy instead. So in that light, allow me to look back and look forward in the Pundits' Guide kind of way.

Jack Layton's federal political career began in 1993 – the NDP's worst federal election in my lifetime – when he ran in the old Toronto riding of Rosedale, placing fourth and earning 11% of the vote, then not even enough for a candidate rebate.

Jack ran again in 1997, placing second, this time in the riding he would go on to win as party leader in 2004, Toronto-Danforth. He was re-elected there for the third time this past May with 60% of the vote.

Jack Layton's Federal Electoral History

In 2003, Layton won the party's first one-member-one-vote leadership convention on the first ballot with 53.5% of the vote, placing ahead of such party stalwarts as Bill Blaikie, Lorne Nystrom and Joe Comartin, but also Québec newcomer Pierre Ducasse. His leadership campaign became a blueprint for his strategic approach as party leader: he caught people's attention with a surprising endorsement from former leader Ed Broadbent, signed up thousands of new party members, and continued to phone canvass identified supporters of his opponents right up till the last week of the campaign.

Layton promised his party a 10-year plan for Québec during that campaign, and the fulfillment of that promise will be remembered as one of his greatest accomplishments, though his record as leader was stellar by any measure.

So, what now, Jack? While we were waiting for his Letter to Canadians to be released, the airtime was filled with recollections of his life in politics, some of them warm and personal, and some the warmed-over sentimentality of those who smeared him short months ago. The punditocracy who completely missed the strategy he was developing and the possibilities for the NDP, will now try and write the party's future, no doubt with plenty of help from its opponents.

For one thing, there will be a by-election in his downtown Toronto seat, that could be called as early as 11 days from the day the Speaker notifies the Chief Electoral Officer of the vacancy, but must be called within at least 180 days.

Then there will be a leadership convention to schedule and conduct, while parallel contests unfold in two other political parties, and the coverage of those contests will become a major focus of this website going forward.

Layton recommended the NDP leadership race be conducted early in the new year, which would place it after the scheduled Bloc Québécois leadership campaign this fall (assuming it's not further postponed), and prior to the planned Liberal Party leadership campaign in 2013.

But, for now, let's all try and remember the challenge he's given us, whatever our political stripe:

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

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Three exhibits this past weekend alone demonstrate how unexpected events can throw a monkey wrench into plans already being made on the run.

UPDATE: See below for more updated coverage of the vote totals in La Pointe de l'Île.]

• The sudden retirement announcements of three more British Columbia members Saturday morning (two from the Reform Party Class of 1993) will have the Conservative Party moving smartly to replace them with new candidates, and in the case of Stockwell Day's riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla, BC, have former Liberal candidate Ross Rebagliati thinking twice about whether he should have stepped down last year. Three Liberals (Shan Lavell, Gordon Wiebe, and John Kidder) are now in the running for a contested nomination to replace him, that has been advertised for Tuesday, March 15, although one party official told me it had been postponed. The NDP has yet to nominate in that riding either, leaving the Green Party's Dan Bouchard as the only nominated candidate for now. The main competition in Chuck Strahl's riding of Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon and John Cummins' riding of Delta-Richmond East will be for the Conservative Party nominations, and four candidates are already said to be jockeying for the latter prize: Howard Jampolsky, Maria Devries, Dale Saip and realtor Keith Roy.
• Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe's bid to have the former Hochelaga NDP candidate installed as the Bloc candidate in retiring M.P. Francine Lalonde's now open seat of La Pointe de l'Île on Sunday, ran headlong into a little hiccup known as party democracy. In fact, Le Devoir reported last month that some members of the riding association were none too keen on Duceppe's having virtually annointed Jean-Claude Rocheleau before Christmas, and were demanding a proper nomination meeting. Of course, a similar thing happened on the road to Daniel Paillé's by-election nomination for the Bloc in Hochelaga, but on that occasion Mr. Duceppe got his way. So further to Wells's First Rule ("For any given situation, Canadian politics will tend toward the least exciting possible outcome"), I let myself believe he would again this time. But while Paillé had only been up against one other candidate by the time his vote was held, Rocheleau was facing two other candidates: long-time party activist Ginette Beaudry and environmentalist Nicolas Montmorency. Québec commentator Jean Lapierre attended the nomination meeting after an earlier interview with Duceppe on TVA, and reported all the happenings on Twitter. Basically, Rocheleau was ahead [UPDATE: the story from L'Avenir de l'Est tells it the opposite way] behind by 11 votes on the first ballot, Montmorency was dropped off, suppertime came, the folks who weren't as angry went home to eat, and the others ganged up on him and elected Beaudry. Rocheleau's Facebook page was taken down within four hours. Lapierre called it a defeat for Duceppe and Lalonde, who had endorsed Rocheleau's candidacy, and almost immediately the NDP announced that Thomas Mulcair would be presenting another group of Montréal candidates this coming Wednesday evening.
• Well-known Manitoba blogger "Hacks and Wonks", who is also a member of the Conservative riding association in the target seat of Winnipeg South Centre, had a bit of a spit-take on Twitter Sunday evening, when he opened up his email and discovered a four-hour old letter of resignation from their candidate Raymond Hall. The Winnipeg Free Press reached Hall within the hour, who confirmed the resignation but declined all further comment. This is in a riding where the Conservatives were expecting to give long-time Liberal M.P. Anita Neville a real run for her money, with a very active pre-election campaign under way by all appearances, and apparently the Conservatives have also made a significant outlay in preelection advertising here, most of which – with Hall's name on it – is money down the drain, for a riding association that after all only had $2,400 in the bank at the end of 2009. As H-and-W said on Twitter, it will have to be a "speedy nomination" now, because separately he's hearing that May 2 will indeed be the election date. In an interesting sidebar, Hall had defeated Neville's cousin, the developer Hart Mallin, for the Conservative nomination back in July 2009. It's unclear who could step into the breach at this point to replace him.

The resignation of the three British Columbia Conservatives leaves only Dick Harris from the Reform Party Class of 1993 in that province. He had been up at the Prince George-Peace River nomination meeting on Friday night, when Public Eye Online first reported that Stockwell Day was to announce his retirement the following day, and Harris reportedly had not heard any news on that score at the time. Long-time Reform Party supporter Bob Zimmer defeated 6 other contenders to win the right to run in Jay Hill's stead, and will now face former Deputy Premier Lois Boone for the NDP, Hilary Crowley for the Green Party and a Liberal to be named later.

In another noteworthy nomination over the weekend, Tamil broadcaster Ragavan Paranchothy was acclaimed as the Conservative candidate in Scarborough Southwest, ON.

This brings us up to 17 Members of Parliament who have either resigned already (3 of them) or are retiring at the next election (the other 14). This is on the low side, compared with earlier totals, as compiled by Professor W.T. Stanbury for a paper we wrote together a few years back:

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It was also unexpected to me (not really) that after researching and writing four blogposts carefully explaining Bill C-12, the legislation that seeks to amend the seat apportionment formula in the constitution to permit the creation of new seats for Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia, that anyone could ever get it wrong again. But indeed it's happened.

So, to summarize:

• Bill C-12 does not actually create the seats.
• It would amend the seat apportionment formula in the Constitution.
• The seat apportionment formula is only used after a decennial census (the next one will be this summer on July 1, 2011) has reported its population totals by province, and the number of seats it computes is then sent to the Electoral Boundaries Commission to set the boundaries.
• The resulting number and shape of the seats is called a Representation Order.
• The new Representation Order will come into effect for the first election after it's adopted.
• That won't be this election, and IT WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN EVEN IF BILL C-12 HAD PASSED the House and Senate in all stages last week. The process also has nothing to do with the last (non-decennial) census at all.

Only the reader who is truly loyal to the Globe and Mail would take the time to point this out, so please forgive me.

In the middle of a busy political day in Ottawa Wednesday, the NDP released french language campaign ads featuring NDP Leader Jack Layton, and Québec Lieutenant and Deputy Leader Thomas Mulcair.

As part of the ad campaign, the party also posted billboards in 40 locations around Montréal featuring posterized versions of the two men's standard headshots, along with a square barcode thingy.

Pardon my luddite-ness, but although I've vaguely been aware of these square computer-chip looking things, and what they probably were used for, I hadn't really investigated further and I've certainly never seen them before in an election campaign.

Anyways, here's what the poster looks like [click on image to open a full-sized version]:

And here's a closer look at the QR Code (aka "Quick Response" code; more about them from Wikipedia here), which is what they call the chip-looking square-ish barcode thingamajigs.

Figuring out what to do with these was a bit complicated. Naturally I started by asking the cool kids, and they showed me how, if you had Blackberry Messenger (BBM) 5 on your phone, you could scan a contact or a group by barcode right into your contact list. So, I upgraded to BBM 5, and tried to scan the barcode off my laptop from the Postmedia blogpost about the ad campaign on screen. No love.

This led to me investigating options involving installing an "app" on my "berry", through the Blackberry App World:

• you have to create a separate Blackberry ID, which is different from the account you set up with them to get your email
• then, you have to install a program for your browser to interact with the App World (requires a reboot of your computer)
• then, you have to connect your Blackberry to a USB port on your computer
• then, you can surf to see which QR Code reader apps work for your particular Blackberry model, and Blackberry service provider (search on "QR Code" to see the available choices).

I wound up installing both BeeTagg and CertainTeed apps, and trying to get them to read the QR code from the Postmedia blogpost version of the poster, but again no love. CertainTeed in particular kept throwing Java out of memory exceptions, and never worked for me on the Blackberry 8330 at all.

Grrr. More research. Then it occurred to me that it's late at night here, and maybe I didn't have enough light on or the QR code wasn't in good enough focus.

I also read that you should hold your Blackberry at least 8 inches away, though you could zoom in with your camera, but anyways the code is supposed to be centred on your screen, and you activate the scan the same way you would take a photo with your smartphone.

Armed with these suggestions, I increased the size of the blogpost with my browser, and turned on a few lights, and tried again.

BeeTagg eventually picked up the code, which was exciting. It takes you to a website address to play the Mulcair and Layton ad. You actually get presented with 4 options from BeeTagg: (i) go to web (http://npd.ca/pubensemble), (ii) show the URL (fancy term for a website address), (iii) copy the URL, or (iv) Save, by adding to your BeeTagg Favorites list.

Meanwhile, I had put out a plaintive call for help on Twitter, and a tweep by the name of @eBeaveronline suggested I try the BBM barcode scanner again, so I did. Whether it was the larger size or the improved lighting, it now worked as well. Thanks, Beave!

It has to be version 5 of Blackberry Messenger, and you go to the menu item "Scan a Group Barcode". A graphic appears showing you how to centre the code on your Blackberry screen, and then you select the menu item "Continue…" and train your smartphone camera on the barcode.

VERY cool, because this time you don't even have to take a photograph with your camera to do the scanning. It just recognizes the code, and pops up a window asking if you want to open the link 'http://npd.ca/pubensemble' or not. Clicking Yes takes you to the website that plays the ad. In fact, I had never played a video on my Blackberry before either, so there were a lot of new experiences for me as I figured this all out.

Anyways, if you have a Blackberry, don't bother with the other Apps. Upgrade to Blackberry Messenger version 5 if you don't already have it, and then use the "Scan a Group Barcode" menu item, holding your Blackberry about 8 inches away from the barcode (and don't do it in the dark, or with too small or fuzzy a version of the QR code).

If you have an Android or iPhone, you've probably already absorbed this coolness by osmosis, and think I'm hopelessly uncool to have to explain it all step by step. Sorry about that.

Last detail: how do they create those QR codes, and how can you do the same? Here's why I'm glad I at least tried the BeeTagg reader, because its originators also have a BeeTagg QR code generator. You give it a URL, and pick one of three kinds of codes (there are two others besides QR codes), and then it generates a beetagg shortened URL, and associates a QR code image with it, that you can download in many different image file formats. For example, here's a QR code I generated to take you to the main page of the Pundits' Guide website:

And here's one to take you to the other pre-election communications volley released on Wednesday:

So, I guess the idea is that with the billboards up in Montreal, people (cool kids, at least) would be able to train their smartphones on the QR code on the billboards, and pull up a video of the party's TV ad. The party logs another hit on its website, and for all I know, might be able to pick up some information about who (or at least which smartphone) clicked through, though I need a bit more research on that aspect.

Anyways, see if you can get your QR code reader working, because it looks like QR codes are the next tele-townhalls in terms of trendy campaign tactics that everyone wants to get in on.

And remember: you heard it here first.

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What used to be the common modus operandi of the Liberals in English-Canada has now been adopted by the Bloc Québécois in Québec, as leader Gilles Duceppe is set to announce a second former NDP candidate will run under the Bloc banner, PunditsGuide.ca can exclusively report.

Set to change colours is 2008 NDP candidate Christelle Bogosta in Brome — Missisquoi, QC, the seat about to be vacated by two-term Bloc M.P. Christian Ouellet, at 76 years of age the oldest M.P. in the Commons.

[UPDATE: iPolitics.ca has more from Liz Thompson, including Bogosta's letter to NDP Leader Jack Layton, though you'll have to become a subscriber to read the story.]

If nominated by her new party, the Addictions specialist will face former Liberal M.P. Denis Paradis, in a riding that featured the closest two-way race in Québec in the last election, with a margin of 2.4%. This is Paradis' second attempt to regain the seat he lost to Ouellet in 2006, and in the last election he charged that Bogosta had split the federalist vote, as she told the Cowansville.enregion.ca website at the end of January while still the nominated NDP candidate. Evidently Paradis won't be able to make that charge stick now. Bogosta obtained 9% of the vote as a New Democrat in 2008, falling just shy of the 10% required to obtain a rebate of candidate expenses.

La Presse Canadienne reported earlier Thursday that Ouellet was set to step down and that Duceppe would be announcing a "surprise" candidate at a news conference on Friday. Later in the day, Le Reflet du Lac reported on local speculation that former Orford mayor Pierre Rodier might be the surprise. But, by early evening, PunditsGuide.ca confirmed that Rodier was not the target, and sources from both parties are now refusing to deny the Bogosta switch.

The news comes on the heels of the approval of former Hochelaga NDP candidate Jean-Claude Rocheleau's nomination papers for the Bloc candidacy in another open Bloc Québécois seat, La Pointe de l'Île, being vacated by long-time Bloc M.P. Francine Lalonde who signed Rocheleau's nomination papers, according to l'Avenir de l'Est. He will have to face a contested nomination, however, as area environmental activist Nicolas Montmorency also had his qualifications approved. A third announced candidate, riding executive member Ginette Beaudry, remains unconfirmed as a candidate to date. The contested nomination meeting will be held on Sunday, March 13. Rocheleau's intention to seek the nomination was announced last fall by Gilles Duceppe.

This means that of the four Bloc Québécois seats which will be open in the next election, Duceppe has gone outside his own party ranks to the NDP for candidates in two of them. No doubt, NDP officials are only glad they hadn't lined up a candidate in Marc-Aurèle Fortin as yet, where Bloc M.P. Serge Ménard has just announced his retirement. to accept a job with the Charest government.

UPDATE: Thanks to a reader who wrote in with a link to a clipping from Le Devoir which reported that while Ménard will be stepping down, the story about that job offer was wrong, and indeed it was already announced to have gone to someone else.

Time to mix up the modus operandi, dear readers. To methodically catch up on the nomination news, I was going to work my way through all the three-way races, followed by the two-way races, the first-time incumbents, and then work our way across the country province-by-province east to west, in a leisurely but fulsome way.

Forget that. I think we're into it now, and so I better get up to date PDQ.

Hence if you have nomination news to pass along, let's hear it all in the comments, and meanwhile I'll be working through my emails, tweets, DMs, clipping archives, and all the usual sources. With any luck and a bit of elbow grease, we'll have a reliable count in a week's time or so.

What's needed:

• Party – Riding – Nomination / Selection Date - Candidate
• Nomination "Type" – was it by acclamation, a contested nomination, an appointment, other, etc.
• A link to some online reference to the nomination, preferably a news story or two with some good local information and/or attendance counts at the nomination meeting and vote counts if they released them
• The candidate's website, if any, or Facebook fan page
• I'm experimentally collecting some other data about candidates as well for future incorporation into the site (the kind not reported to Elections Canada, which collects occupation and residence), such as: electoral experience at other levels, ethnicity, union affiliation, language of preference, Facebook page, etc. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel in competing with any of the excellent sites already running at HowdTheyVote.ca, PoliTwitter.ca or OpenParliament.ca, but this would be a great dataset to collect. Send it if you got it.

To see what's already in the database, here are the lists of nominated candidates that have been assembled thus far:

• For the Liberals
• For the NDP
• For the Green Party
• For the Bloc Québécois
• For the Conservatives
• Everyone

As a sideline to help with it all, I'm resurrecting the nomination meeting data countdown. So far we have:

• Lib – Esquimalt — Juan de Fuca, BC – Mon Feb 21 – David Hodgins, Lillian Szpak
• NDP – Burnaby — Douglas, BC – Fri Feb 25 – Sam Schechter, Kennedy Stewart
• Lib – Fort McMurray — Athabaska, AB – Sat Feb 26 – {names?}
• NDP – Pitt Meadows — Maple Ridge — Mission, BC – Sun Mar 6 – Elizabeth Rosenau, Craig Speirs

… but there's got to be more. If you can have other meetings to add, please send them in, and I'll get the list put back up in the left-hand column. Once we get the current list of candidates, and candidates stepped down, we'll get onto the upcoming nominations.

If you sent something in before, I'll find it eventually, so please don't be offended. If you're not easily offended and don't mind sending it again, I'll of course be eternally grateful.

So: one week to get the list up to date, people. We can do it!

And I'll tweet 'em if I get 'em @punditsguide, or if you'd rather correspond by email, you can reach me at alice@punditsguide.ca.

Meanwhile, here are all the nominations from the four major parties that I've been able to identify, that were not in the database, but are now. The Greens have had a bit more churn (which means a bit more work for me), and will thus be the focus of a subsequent update, along with some of the smaller and/or newer parties.

Ready? Here we go:

Recent additions and deletions from the Liberal party slate:

• Lib – Saskatoon — Wanuskewin, SK – Sat Dec 12, 2009 – Retired nurse Patricia Zipchen was renominated by acclamation
• Lib – Cypress Hill — Grasslands, SK – Fri Jul 23 – Farmer Duane Filson was renominated by acclamation
• Lib – Chatham-Kent — Essex, ON – Fri Aug 13 – Steve Pickard stepped down in order to deal with recent events
• Lib – Edmonton — Mill Woods — Beaumont, AB – Mon Aug 23 – Former NDP candidate for the same riding, Michael Butler, was acclaimed
• Lib – Okanagan — Shuswap, BC – Mon Aug 23 – Social worker Janna Francis was renominated by acclamation
• Lib – Charleswood — St. James — Assiniboia – Tue Oct 19 – First-time candidate, small business person Rob Clement was acclaimed
• Lib – Lasalle — Émard, QC – Sun Nov 14 – First-time M.P. Lisa Zarac was renominated by acclamation
• Lib – Okanagan — Coquihalla, BC – Fri Nov 19 – Ross Rebagliati resigned due to family and personal reasons
• Lib – Gaspésie — Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC – Sun Nov 28 – Recreation director Jules Duguay was acclaimed
• Lib – Beauport — Limoilou, QC – Sun Nov 28 – Small business owner Lorraine Chartier was acclaimed
• Lib – Charlesbourg — Haute-Ste-Charles, QC – Sun Nov 28 – Public relations specialist Martine Gaudreault acclaimed
• Lib – Louis-Hébert, QC – Sun Nov 28 – Lawyer and former president of the Québec Winter Carnival Jean Beaupré was also acclaimed
• Lib – Ottawa West — Nepean, ON – Sun Nov 28 – Long-time party insider Anita Vandenbeld won a contested nomination over University of Ottawa prof Nour El Kadri
• Lib – Hochelaga, QC – Sat Dec 4 – Gilbert Thibodeau was acclaimed
• Lib – Prince Edward — Hastings, ON – Sat Dec 11 – Former Military Police Complaints Commission Chair Peter Tinsley acclaimed
• Lib – Edmonton East, AB – Fri Dec 17 – IT Management Consultant Shafik Ruda was nominated
• Lib – Calgary East – Fri Jan 14 – Political scientist and former journalist Josipa Petrunic was acclaimed
• Lib – New Westminster — Coquitlam, BC – Sat Jan 15 – By-election candidate Ken Beck Lee was renominated
• Lib – Calgary Northeast, AB – Sun Jan 16 – Retired Calgary police officer Cam Stewart was acclaimed
• Lib – Halton, ON – Tue Jan 18 – Appointed candidate, businesswoman Deborah Gillis resigned to take a job with Catalyst Canada
• Lib – Windsor — Tecumseh – Wed Jan 19 – Investment advisor Pat Brough resigned due to changes in her personal and professional life
• Lib – Ancaster — Dundas — Flamborough — Westdale, ON – Sat Jan 22 – Former Hamilton councillor David Braden won a contested nomination over Anne Tennier and Brian Kerman
• Lib – Parry Sound — Muskoka, ON – Fri Jan 28 – Small business owner Cindy Waters was acclaimed to replace Shawn Pudsey who stepped down in July to focus on his health
• Lib – Regina — Qu'Appelle, SK – Sat Jan 29 – Jackie Miller was acclaimed
• Lib – Palliser, SK – Sat Jan 29 – Construction project manager Russell Collicott was acclaimed

Recent additions and deletions from the NDP slate:

• NDP – Kings — Hants, NS – Sun Mar 14 – United Church minister David Hewitt was acclaimed
• NDP – Selkirk — Interlake, MB – Sat Apr 24 – Former riding association president Sean Palsson won a contested nomination against Wayne James
• NDP – Shefford, QC – Mon May 31 – Horticulturalist Réjean Genest of Les Beaux Jardins was acclaimed
• NDP – Longeuil — Pierre Boucher, QC – Wed Jun 9 – Television production specialist Pierre Nantel won a contested nomination over Djaouida Sellah
• NDP – Edmonton — St. Albert, AB – Tue Jul 6 – Former Edmonton — Sherwood Park candidate, child and youth care worker Brian Labelle was acclaimed
• NDP – Wetaskiwin, AB – Fri Aug 13 – 2004 and 2008 candidate Tim Robson was renominated by acclamation
• NDP – Kings — Hants, NS – Sun Aug 22 – United Church minister David Hewitt stepped down to take a new job with the United Church
• NDP – Mount Royal, QC – Mon Aug 23 – Vice-president of the Federation of Teachers of Jewish Schools Jeff Itcush was acclaimed (leader Jack Layton in attendance)
• NDP – Huron — Bruce, ON – Thu Sep 16 – NFU Ontario past-President Grant Robertson acclaimed (leader Jack Layton at the meeting)
• NDP – Vancouver Quadra, BC – Sat Oct 2 – HEU 2nd vice-president Victor Elkins was acclaimed
• NDP – Saint-Laurent — Cartierville, QC – Mon Oct 18 – Maria Ximena Florez, Director of the Baobab Familial centre for families, was acclaimed
• NDP – St. John's South — Mount Pearl, NL – Wed Oct 27 – Ryan Cleary stepped down, saying that he couldn't be both a journalist and a politician at the same time
• NDP – Saint-Léonard — Saint-Michel, QC – Fri Oct 29 – Immigrant outreach volunteer Roberta Peressini was acclaimed (leader Jack Layton in attendance)
• NDP – West Vancouver — Sunshine Coast — Sea-to-Sky Country, BC – Nov 7 – BC Ferries worker Terry Platt was acclaimed
• NDP – Malpeque, PE – Sat Nov 13 – Retired veteran of the armed forces, Rita Jackson, was acclaimed
• NDP – Newmarket — Aurora, ON – Sun Nov 21 – Kassandra Bidarian was acclaimed
• NDP – New Westminster — Coquitlam, BC – Sat Nov 27 – By-election victor, M.P. Fin Donnelly renominated by acclamation to run again in the general election
• NDP – Peace River, AB – Tue Dec 7 – Former renominated Green Party candidate, Métis lawyer Jennifer Villebrun, was acclaimed, after having resigned as Green candidate on August 21
• NDP – Châteauguay — Saint-Constant, QC – Sat Dec 11 – Université de Montréal maintenance workers local grievance officer Sylvain Chicoine was acclaimed
• NDP – Vancouver Island North, BC – Tue Jan 4 – Former M.P. Catherine Bell stepped down to concentrate on her new business
• NDP – Sarnia — Lambton, ON – Wed Jan 5 – Crissy Sinopole stepped down for personal reasons
• NDP – Trois Rivières, QC – Wed Jan 12 – Musician and teacher Robert Aubin acclaimed
• NDP – Stormont — Dundas — South Glengarry, ON – Sat Jan 15 – Darlene Jalbert resigned to take a new job with the Steelworkers
• NDP – Central Nova, NS – Sun Jan 16 – The brother of the provincial Speaker of the Legislature Charlie Parker, teacher and municipal councillor David Parker was acclaimed to run against Peter Mackay.
• NDP – Parry Sound — Muskoka, ON – Sun Jan 16 – Family doctor Wendy Wilson, by acclamation, to replace candidate Dianna Allen, who stepped down due to changes in family circumstances
• NDP – Abitibi — Baie James — Nunavik — Eeyou, QC – Fri Jan 21 – Sociologist and Chibougamau teacher Cochise Brunet-Trait was acclaimed
• NDP – Saint-Jean, QC – Fri Jan 21 – Environmentalist and engineer, former municipal candidate Tarik Brahmi was acclaimed
• NDP – Compton — Stanstead, QC – Fri Jan 21 – Human resources advisor Jean Rousseau was renominated
• NDP – Dartmouth — Cole Harbour, NS – Tue Jan 25 – Former provincial NDP leader Robert Chisholm acclaimed (leader Jack Layton at the meeting)
• NDP – Sarnia — Lambton, ON – Wed Jan 26 – Former Sarnia council candidate and filmmaker Brian White acclaimed to replace candidate Crissy Sinopole, who stepped down for personal reasons
• NDP – Jeanne-Le Ber, QC – Sun Jan 30 – Actor and Black Theatre Workshop Artistic Director Tyrone Benskin was acclaimed (leader Jack Layton was at the meeting)
• NDP – Okanagan — Shuswap, BC – Sun Jan 30 – Healthcare worker and union activist Nicole (Nikki) Inouye was acclaimed
• NDP – Cumberland — Colchester — Musquodoboit Valley, NS – Wed Feb 2 – Mark Austin stepped down to take a new job with the Coastal Communities Network
• NDP – Charlottetown, PE – Thu Feb 3 – Long time social justice advocate Joe Byrne was acclaimed
• NDP – Hull — Aylmer, QC – Thu Feb 3 – Former PSAC national president Nycole Turmel was acclaimed (leader Jack Layton was at the meeting)

Recent additions and deletions from the BQ slate:

• BQ – Montmagny — l'Islet — Kamouraska — Rivière-du-Loup, QC – Sun Jan 30 – Saint-Jean-Port-Joli municipal councillor Nathalie Arsenault was acclaimed

Recent additions and deletions from the Conservative party slate:

• Cons – St. Paul's, ON – Wed Sep 23, 2009 – Former Peter Kent campaign organizer and 2008 candidate against NDP Leader Jack Layton in Toronto — Danforth, Christina Perreault was acclaimed
• Cons – York West, ON – On or before Oct 18, 2009 – Past-president of the Black Business & Professional Association Audrey Walters became the candidate
• Cons – Don Valley East, ON – Nov 14, 2009 – Former riding campaign manager, small business owner Joe Daniel was acclaimed
• Cons – Vancouver East, BC – Fri Jan 15 – Philippine Journal publisher and editor-in-chief Irene Yatco was acclaimed
• Cons – New Westminster — Coquitlam, BC – Sat Jan 30 – By-election candidate and municipal councillor Diana Dilworth was renominated
• Cons – Scarborough Centre, ON – On or before Feb 9, 2010 – Real estate agent Roxanne James was renominated
• Cons – Dartmouth — Cole Harbour, NS – On or before May 18, 2010 – High school teacher and 2008 candidate Wanda Webber renominated
• Cons – Skeena — Bulkley Valley, BC – Mon Jun 7 – Former 2000 GE Independent candidate in Okanagan — Coquihalla, Clay Harmon, was acclaimed
• Cons – Mississauga South, ON – Thu Jun 10 – Former 2008 in Bramalea — Gore — Malton, Stella Ambler, was acclaimed
• Cons – Thunder Bay — Rainy River, ON – Mon Aug 9 – Businesswoman and niece of the former M.P., Maureen Comuzzi-Stehmann was acclaimed
• Cons – Thunder Bay — Superior North, ON – Tue Aug 31 – Nipigon Mayor Richard Harvey won a contested nomination over Richard Longtin
• Cons – Saint-Léonard — Saint-Michel, QC – Wed Sep 15 – Riccardo De Ioris was acclaimed
• Cons – Jeanne-Le Ber, QC – Wed Sep 15 – Lawyer Pierre Lafontaine was acclaimed
• Cons – Pierrefonds — Dollards, QC – Wed Sep 15 – One-time Liberal aide and 2008 Conservative candidate in Laval — Les Îles, Agop T. Evereklian was acclaimed
• Cons – Brome — Missisquoi, QC – Fri Sep 24 – Former Hill staffer Nolan Bauerle was acclaimed
• Cons – Haute-Gaspésie — La Mitis — Matane — Matapédia, QC – The prefect of Haute-Gaspésie Allen Cormier was acclaimed
• Cons – Richmond — Arthabaska, QC – Mon Dec 6 – Jean-Philippe Bachand, the former mayor of the town of Asbestos and brother of former Progressive Conservative M.P. for the riding André Bachand, was acclaimed
• Cons – Kings — Hants, NS – Thu Jan 6 – Former provincial environment and natural resources minister David Morse was acclaimed
• Cons – Nickel Belt, ON – Wed Jan 12 – Former 2008 Liberal nomination candidate and municipal councillor Lynne Reynolds was acclaimed
• Cons – Algoma — Manitoulin — Kaspuskasing, ON – Mon Jan 17 – First time candidate, retired CF Major Ray Sturgeon was acclaimed
• Cons – Nipissing — Temiskaming, ON – Mon Jan 24 – School board trustee and business consultant Jay Aspin was acclaimed

UPDATE: A commenter below says that it’s been announced that Conservative candidate Ray Larkin will not be running in the by-election after all. I’m trying to reconfirm with my sources. Thanks as always to PG readers for being so fast with their feedback.

RE-UPDATED: According to the Conservative Party headquarters, regional director Marni Larkin did not announce that her father Ray Larkin would not be running in the by-election, and he is indeed their candidate in this riding.  No harm checking out the question, however.  Thanks again to everyone for their assistance.

Contrary to reports in some Winnipeg media this morning, all four major political parties have now picked their candidates for the forthcoming election in the vacant seat of Winnipeg North, MB.

Last night’s meeting in The Maples Community Centre (not the Winnipeg Convention Centre, as earlier speculated) saw a reported 1,000 of 2,300 eligible Liberal members cast ballots in a two-way contested nomination fight between Inkster MLA Kevin Lamoureux and his unsuccessful challenger, Point Douglas city councillor Mike Pagtakhan, who will now likely run for re-election in this fall’s municipal election instead.

Meanwhile, 2008 Conservative candidate controller Ray Larkin has been tapped to run once again by his party, sources tell the Pundits’ Guide.  Larkin achieved a second-place finish in the last election, obtaining a record 22.4% of the vote for his party in that riding, while the Liberals fell to third place, below the 10% threshold for receiving a rebate of paid candidate election expenses.

Undeterred, new Liberal candidate Lamoureux believes their recent growth in membership sales from 100 to 2300 (1300 reportedly signed up by his campaign) signals a resurgence for his party, claiming that “the Liberal Party needs to win Winnipeg North”.

The two join NDP candidate Kevin Chief who was acclaimed at the end of May in the hopes of replacing retiring Judy Wasylycia-Leis, who stepped down to run for Mayor.  Wasylycia-Leis had obtained her party’s second-highest vote share in the last election, and ranked in the top 5 since at least 1997.

First to be nominated on April 21 of last year was the Green Party’s John Harvie, who remains their candidate according to the Party’s official list on its website.

The Prime Minister has until October 27 to call the by-election, which given the usual 36-day writ period would put it on or before Monday, December 13, 2010.  However, in light of the competing municipal election in Winnipeg on October 27, the scheduled return of Parliament on Monday September 20, and the PM’s previous patterns, we could see a call come in the first week of August for an Election Day of either Tuesday, September 7 (after Labour Day), or Monday, September 13.

The candidate spending limit will be $76,000 or so during the campaign period, based on the 2008 riding population of 79,366.  Registered parties will be able to spend about half again as much.  Of course this doesn’t apply to any spending incurred for items prior to the election call.

Looking at the riding associations’ finances, as recently added to the Pundits’ Guide riding profiles, we see that only the Conservative Party had filed its EDA return when I last imported the data, and reported a Net Worth of $3750 (approximately 5% of the spending limit).  I notice the NDP has just filed its return with Elections Canada as well, reporting a Net Worth of $48.9K (64% of the limit), so I’ll get that return into the database as soon as possible.  Neither the Liberals’ nor Greens’ EDA return is filed in the Elections Canada database as yet.

We continue our update of the nomination news in the five seats with retiring incumbents (aka “open seats”).  Here is the latest from east to west:

• New Brunswick Southwest, NB – Three candidates are vying for the chance to replace Greg Thompson as the governing party’s candidate in this longstanding Conservative seat.  First to give notice was the Prime Minister’s then-Director of Communications, John Williamson, on March 31.  Williamson was a founding editorial board member of the National Post and Financial Post blogger, and had then worked briefly as press secretary for Stephen Harper’s 2001 leadership campaign, before becoming the national spokesperson for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.  Explains Conservative blogger Stephen Taylor, Williamson was indicating his intention to run early, but could not formally commence his nomination campaign until his work with the Prime Minister’s Office concluded, which appears to have happened once Dimitri Soudas was named Director of Communications on April 11.  Williamson officially announced his campaign on May 17, 2010.  Taylor says that retiring M.P. Greg Thompson “encouraged” Williamson to run, but a month later Thompson’s 2008 campaign manager Rick Hunter also entered the race on April 29.  Hunter was an industrial arts teacher and vice-principal for three decades before sitting as a member of the District 18 education council.  The two were joined several days later by New Brunswick Community College international trade instructor, Lloyd Wilson.  No date has been set for the nomination meeting as yet, although it could come as late as next spring according to some reports.  Liberal candidate Kelly Wilson was selected by acclamation on October 3, 2009, while the NDP reconfirmed two-time candidate, carpenter Andrew Gordon Graham, as their standard-bearer this past February 21.  No Green Party candidate has surfaced in my research to date.
• Haute-Gaspésie – La Mitis – Matane – Matapédia, QC – Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe visited this riding to bolster the troops in February, in the wake of his party’s loss of neighbouring Montmagny – L’Islet – Kamouraska – Rivière-du-Loup, QC a few months before and the complaints of some local mayors (“from other political parties,” Duceppe said) that retiring Bloc M.P. Jean-Yves Roy was not often seen in the riding.  Duceppe came to support the local PQ MNA Claude Guimond, along with his local Bloc candidate Jean-François Fortin, a political science professor at the Rimouski CEGEP who was expected to be facing a tough challenge from returning Liberal candidate and former Matane MNA Nancy Charest.  Charest had a riding membership of 2,000 and came within 616 votes of unseating Roy in 2008; and she continued to receive fundraising assistance from former Québec lieutenant Denis Coderre earlier this year.  At that very cocktail party, however, she gave an interview to La Voix Gaspésienne apparently questioning Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s ability to properly represent Quebeckers, which Charest later claimed was misrepresented in the media, but not before the quotes were happily concurred with by Fortin, and the story was picked up by the national media and crossed the country.  All appeared to be forgiven, however, by mid-April when the new Québec lieutenant Marc Garneau visited the riding to campaign with her.  No Conservative or NDP candidates have surfaced as yet, however the Green Party’s Louis Drainville has been confirmed for another run this past January.
• Dauphin – Swan River – Marquette, MB – I’m still a bit in the dark as to the final state of things in the Conservative nomination here, although I do have some emails out to try and nail it down.  Of course, veteran Conservative M.P. Inky Mark announced back last June that he would not be running again, and set tongues wagging right away by speculating on who might run to replace him, naming the Conservative riding president Wayne Mathison, Neepawa publisher and past provincial candidate Ken Waddell, and conservationist Robert (Bob) Sopuck who has also had a column with the Winnipeg Free Press.  The Manitoba Post also added Minnedosa MLA Leanne Rowat’s name into the mix, but by mid-August the Winnipeg Free Press was reporting that neither Waddell nor Rowat were planning a run, and that Bob Sopuck was and Wayne Mathison still hadn’t ruled it out.  Now, why I’m confused in all this is that a commenter on this Endless Spin Cycle blogpost on Sopuck’s nomination candidacy, a blogpost by Mia Rabson a month later, and a source in the media, have all said that Sopuck is the confirmed Conservative candidate in the riding.  However, I’ve never seen any reporting on a nomination meeting, his nomination is not recorded in the Elections Canada nominations database, and moreover his own website still says he’s “seeking the nomination for the Conservative Party”.  There don’t seem to be any other parties’ candidates in the wind either, although given Mark’s legendary margins of victory, probably only the NDP, which last held the seat in the 1980s, could come anywhere close to the Conservatives.  (h/t Endless Spin Cycle for some of the links)
• Lethbridge, AB – Conservatives will hold a 5-way contested nomination meeting this coming Saturday June 19, to replace retiring M.P. Rick Casson as their standard-bearer in the coming election (and let’s face it, as their likely next M.P.).  First to announce his intention to run was Lethbridge businessman and former mayoralty candidate Mark Switzer, back in February.  Next in was business consultant Jill Hillyer, who announced his candidacy in March.  The two were joined in April by two-time Conservative campaign manager and former Wheat Pool employee Kent Prestage, who is currently the chief financial officer of the Christian broadcaster Miracle Channel.  Dairy farmer and Lethbridge County reeve, Henry Doeve joined the race two weeks later, followed by real estate agent and former healthcare worker, Lorna Peacock, later the same week.  Already nominated since January 16 for the NDP is retired Lethbridge University professor Mark Sandilands.  To date no Liberal or Green Party candidates have emerged, although 2008 Christian Heritage candidate Geoffrey Capp is back for another run.  (h/t Daveberta.ca for some of the links)
• Kootenay – Columbia, BC – Since we last ran down this riding’s history after long-time Conservative M.P. Jim Abbott’s announced retirement, there has been a bit of candidate news to report and a lot more speculation.  First to break some news on that score was colourful BC conservative blogger Alex Tsakumis on his blog last February, when he reported that the local provincial MLA and cabinet minister Bill Bennett was indeed contemplating a run federally, and that were he to make the jump, one of two mayors (Dave Wilks of Sparwood or Scott Manjak of Cranbrook) would be tapped as his provincial replacement, although that might risk an anti-HST by-election that the BC Liberals would want to avoid.  A few days later the federal Liberal riding association had some news of their own: two-time NDP candidate and Kimberley municipal councillor announced that he was disillusioned with what he called the “urban orientation” of Jack Layton’s NDP and that he was seeking the Liberal nomination instead.  The Conservative riding association scheduled a general meeting for April 8 (with Senator Mike Duffy as the guest speaker), and a week before the meeting, Bennett issued a statement putting himself out of contention.  The meeting elected Abbott’s constituency assistant as its new president, and as expected, a couple of days later Sparwood Mayor David Wilks did announce his candidacy on April 10, and he stepped down from his additional duties as Chair of the Regional District of East Kootenays the following month.  Two other candidates have also taken out nomination papers, according to the riding’s candidate search committee, which itself was criticized for omitting representation from the Revelstoke part of the very large riding.  Meanwhile, Creston area small businessperson and former provincial nomination candidate Rhonda Barter was the first to take out nomination papers for the NDP, which has also struck a candidate search committee, and she is also actively campaigning against the HST.  But meantime, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s announced intention to whip his caucus’ votes on an unamended version of Bill C-391 (the private member’s bill to disband the long gun registry), caused Bush to rescind his decision to run for the Liberals, although he may run as an Independent candidate anyway.  No dates have been set for either the Conservative or NDP nomination meetings, while the Liberals have recommenced their candidate search.  No Green Party candidates have surfaced yet in my research on this riding either. (h/t to the Blogging Tories for some of the links)

If you have nomination news to share from any of the open seats, for any of the political parties, why not get in touch to share it with other Pundits’ Guide readers, or stay tuned @punditsguide on Twitter.

A quick update on potential candidates for the now-vacant seat of Winnipeg North, MB.

We learned via the Liberal Scarf blog earlier this afternoon that more than one person is interested in the Liberal nomination in the riding.  In addition to Inkster MLA Kevin Lamoureux, Winnipeg city councillor Mike Pagtakhan (Point Douglas), nephew of former Liberal M.P. Rey Pagtakhan, is now said to be giving thought to running for the Liberal candidacy as well, promising a decision by the end of June as to whether he’ll run for the federal nomination or run for another municipal term this fall.  Earlier he was reported to be considering a bid for Kevin Lamoureux’s provincial seat after the former stepped down instead.

Meanwhile, indications are becoming clearer that indeed Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Centre executive director Kevin Chief will announce his candidacy for the NDP nomination very soon, and thanks to a reader we learn that the NDP has scheduled its nomination meeting for Monday, May 31.  Chief could still be contested, I’m told, but no actual names have surfaced as yet.

I’m indebted to the  Liberal Scarf’s work in keeping up the nomination news from more parties than just his own, while I’ve been otherwise immersed in mapping work, and I relied on his research quite a bit in order to catch up the nominations database here over the past week or so.  So, thank you, and keep up the good work.