Liberals take LaFontaine, Argenteuil still counting

The Quebec Liberals won the byelection in LaFontaine, on the eastern tip of Montreal island, but there’s a tight race in Argenteuil with the PQ ahead. Tweets are suggesting this would be a signal loss to the PLC because it’s been Liberal since 1966, including a 15-year stint by Claude Ryan.

Fagstein tweets that it was a 25% voter turnout in Argenteuil, 20% in LaFontaine. And here I’d been hoping that heightened political hijinks would motivate people to express their preference – anti-demo types are wont to say “why demonstrate, you should vote instead” but so few people trouble to vote. (Some recent thoughts on this worldwide trend from George Monbiot in the Guardian.)

Update: Fagstein now says it was a 42.36% turnout in Argenteuil – not stellar, but not as bad. He also says: “Standings now: PLQ 64, PQ 47, CAQ 9, Others 4, Vacant 1. Government majority is 3 votes (2 with Liberal speaker)”