Canadian by-elections, 2017 (next event: Calgary-Lougheed, AB prov.: Dec 14)

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South Surrey-White Rock: Watts quitting to run for the provincial Grit leadership.

Not to go too far off topic, but from the B.C perspective, this likely explains why no Liberal M.L.A had entered the leadership race (which is only around 4 months away): they were all waiting to see what Dianne Watts would decide.

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Vancouver municipal by-elections.  8:30, no results so far.

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3/53 polling stations reporting.  Hector Bremner leads the city council race with 41% of the vote.

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5/53 polling stations reporting.  Hector Bremner leads with 36% of the vote.  Peter Fry in second with 19%

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10/53 polls.  Bremner jumps into a big lead with 42% of the vote, Fry in second with 17%.  Vision Vancouver's Diego Cardona at 9.6%

NPA has 5 of 9 school board positions, Green 3 and one Vision Vancouver.

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14/53 stations.  8,552 ballots counted.  Bremner 40%, Fry 18%, Jean Swanson in third.  Vision Vancouver candidate now just over 10%.

No change for school board.

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25/53 polling stations reporting now.  19,457 votes out of 442,792 eligible.  Hopefully the advanced poll is large.

Hector Bremner still leads but has dropped to 33% while Pete Fry is up to 20%.  Unlikely Fry can catch up but it could still get interesting.

Vision Vancouver now up to 2 school board positions with the NPA dropping to 4.

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32/53 polling stations.  Bremner 33% Fry 20%.  5.49% counted turnout so far.

No change for school board.

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40/53 polling stations reporting. 32,084 counted ballots.  Bremner 32%, Pete Fry 20%, Jean Swanson 19%

No change for school board, but tight race for final spot between Vision Vancouver, NPA and One City.

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45/53 polling stations reporting. 35,517 counted votes.  8.02% turnout.  (Sad)

Bremner 31%, Fry 20, Swanson 19%

No change for school board.


Sad is putting the turnout mildly. 

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50/53 41,838 ballots counted.

Bremner 28.5%, Swanson 20.5% Fry 20%

3 Green, 3 Vision Vancouver, 2 NPA 1 One City on school board.  If that holds up it will be the Vancouver version of the old Italian Parliament.

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Definitely not a good night for Vision Vancouver so while still a year away, it does seem Gregor Robertson may face greater headwinds although it still seems more voted left than right but split on the left.  Turnout 8.02% is pathetic.  BTW I voted despite the fact I had to drive in to the city as I am staying on Bowen Island for the next few weeks to do some dogsitting.

My new pet peeve:  there is no need to say 'the fact', or 'the fact that...'  "I voted despite having to drive..."

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Final results.  48,645 ballots. 10.99% turnout.  (Elections Vancouver had hoped for 20-25%) I'm not sure much can be read into a by-election with such a low turnout.  This is about 1/3 of normal turnout to Vancouver municipal elections.

Hector Bremner, NPA 27.83%
Jean Swanson,  21.36%
Pete Fry, Green,  20.31%
Judy Graves, One City, 13.17%
Diego Cardona, Vision Vancouver, 11.26%

School board elected in order:
1.Janet Fraser, Green
2.Judy Zaichkowsky, Green
3.Esteillita Gonzalez, Green (Greens only ran three candidates)
4.Joy Alexander, Vision Vancouver
5.Allan Wong, Vision Vancouver
6.Lisa Dominato, NPA
7.Fraser Ballantyne, NPA
8.Carrie Bercic, One City
9.Ken Clement, Vision Vancouver

Janet Fraser, Joy Alexander, Allan Wong and Fraser Ballantyne served on the fired school board.

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The Bloc won't win. Their base (unionised factory workers) in Alma will be split between the Bloc and the NDP.

I need to go to bed for awhile. I'd like to know why these by-elections couldn't have been timed to fit into my schedule. 

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Conservatives elected another dumbass:

Lloyd has a history of posting controversial views in social media, easily retained the Edmonton riding of Sturgeon River-Parkland with 77 per cent of the vote.

Among other things, Lloyd has referred to women's advocates as "Feminazis" and started a Facebook campaign to create a Canadian chapter of the National Rifle Association.

That said, since this isn't actually an 'Edmonton riding' it's possible the rest of the article is wrong.

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Conservatives elected another dumbass:

Lloyd has a history of posting controversial views in social media, easily retained the Edmonton riding of Sturgeon River-Parkland with 77 per cent of the vote.

Among other things, Lloyd has referred to women's advocates as "Feminazis" and started a Facebook campaign to create a Canadian chapter of the National Rifle Association.

That said, since this isn't actually an 'Edmonton riding' it's possible the rest of the article is wrong.

Definitely the party will want to have stronger and more moderate candidates going into 2019 or they will provide lots of fodder for the Liberals if they have too many like him.  Every party has its kooky candidates, but the Tories have fair or not a bad reputation of being too right wing and they need to shed this if they ever want to return to power.

As for Edmonton, it is in the Capital region, but not part of the city of Edmonton.  While largely rural it does include several bedroom communities so its kind of like Airdire or Okotoks is to Calgary, Abbotsford to Vancouver, or Bowmanville to Toronto.  Still technically within the Metro area and commuting region but not the actual city.  Certainly the capital region surrounding Edmonton tends to vote much more heavily Conservative than the actual city itself.

Yes, the Edmonton suburb/exurb of Stony Plain is in the riding, however most of the rest of it is rural. Provincially the NDP handily won the older and larger suburban Edmonton ridings of St Albert and Sherwood Park in 2015.

This new M.P isn't the first extreme right winger who has won for the Conservatives in byelections, as I'd argue both the replacements for Jason Kenney and Stephen Harper are also fringe.

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What is the record for the most by-elections (Or bye bye elections) during a term of Parliament?  Other than the couple M.Ps who died, doesn't anybody want to do the job they ran to get?

I remember in 1977 or so there was the 'mini election' by-election.

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Federal Liberals have nominated longtime provincial Liberal MLA Gordie Hogg as their candidate in the South Surrey-White Rock by-election.  Hogg is the former mayor of White Rock and ran for the Federal Liberals in 1993.

Hogg was an MLA from 1997-2017, winning the by-election when Wilf Hurd stepped down from the provincial liberals to run in this riding (more or less this riding) in the 1997 Federal Election.

Hogg was a cabinet minister for a while under Gordon Campbell and after being dropped from the cabinet, went on to get an interdisciplinary PhD in Public Policy.  He became a criminology professor after the election.

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60/199 polls

Hogg 3,228
Findlay 2,884

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70/199
Hogg 3,887
Findlay 3,561

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Too early for congrats, Adam?

Possibly.

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80/199
Hogg 4,510
Findlay 3,963

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95/199
Hogg 5,379
Findlay 4,800

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100/199
Hogg 5,729
Findlay 5,150

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120/199 polls
Hogg 6,979
Findlay 6,392