CTV News | Recount awards Liberals Quebec seat; total now at 77

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Recount awards Liberals Quebec seat; total now at 77

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CTV.ca News Staff

Date: Sunday Oct. 26, 2008 7:05 PM ET

The Liberals have gained another seat, upping their total number to 77 in Parliament, after a judicial recount reversed a Bloc Quebecois victory in a south suburban Montreal riding.

Grit candidate Alexandra Mendes initially lost the Brossard-La Prairie seat to the Bloc's Marcel Lussier by 143 votes.

But a judicial recount by Quebec Superior Court Justice Michel A. Caron overturned that result, instead giving Mendes a 69-vote victory.

"I'm thrilled to be representing the citizens of Brossard-La Prairie," Mendes told CTV's Question Period Sunday.

"It's something that I've been wishing to do for a while and I'm very glad that I have this opportunity."

The latest Liberal victory, which knocks the Bloc's seat count down to 49, is one of six razor-thin contests which Elections Canada has reviewed since the Oct. 14 election.

On Friday, Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, a former federal health minister, held onto his Vancouver South seat after a judicial recount awarded him a 22-vote victory.

The initial election tally gave Dosanjh, who is also a former NDP premier, a 33-vote win over Conservative Wai Young.

Meanwhile, a judicial recount is expected to start on Monday for the riding of Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, where incumbent Liberal Keith Martin barely bested Conservative candidate Troy DeSouza.

On Thursday, a judge awarded P.E.I. Conservative Gail Shea victory in the Egmont riding, but the winning vote margin was narrowed from 62 to 55.

Shea's win comes after her Liberal challenger Keith Milligan complained of voting regularities, including allegations that a dead man's name was on a voter's list.

Shea is the first Tory to take a seat in the province in about two decades, and CTV's chief parliamentary correspondent Craig Oliver predicted Sunday that she could receive a cabinet posting.

Elections Canada has also ordered recounts in:

- Brampton West, where Liberal Andrew Kania won by 223 votes over Conservative Kyle Seeback.

- Kitchener-Waterloo, where Tory Peter Braid barely defeated Liberal Andew Telegdi by 48 votes.

Dates for those two recounts have yet to be set.

The Conservatives currently hold 143 seats, which is a dozen short of a majority in the 308-seat House of Commons.


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