PM credits agenda for Quebec byelection upset
OTTAWA — A triumphant Justin Trudeau contends the federal Liberals’ byelection victory in Quebec’s nationalist heartland is a vote of confidence in his government’s economic agenda.
The prime minister said Tuesday that Monday’s upset in LacSaint-Jean demonstrates that voters are satisfied with his government’s recipe for economic growth: putting more money in the pockets of middle-class Canadians and making massive investments in infrastructure.
Liberal candidate Richard Hébert snatched the riding away from the Conservatives, winning 38.6 per cent of the vote — more than double the Liberal vote share in the riding during the 2015 election and 14 points ahead of his Conservative rival.
The Bloc Québécois came in a close third but the NDP candidate, who had run a close second to Tory veteran Denis Lebel in 2015, finished a distant fourth with less than 12 per cent.
The Lac-Saint-Jean contest and a second byelection Monday in traditional Tory turf in Alberta — where the Conservatives scored a predictably massive win — were the first electoral tests of leadership for a trio of new party leaders: Conservative Andrew Scheer, New Democrat Jagmeet Singh and Bloquiste Martine Ouellet.
Conservative Dane Lloyd, a 26-year-old with 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.