Le peuple a parlé

That's right -- the people have spoken. At least, the people in three federal ridings in Québec have spoken.

The results from today's three by-election are in and the results are rather interesting. The NDP won in Outremont, a Montreal riding that has been held by the Liberals since 1935. The Conservatives won in Roberval-Lac-Saint-Jean, a rural riding in the Saguenay that had previously been held by the Bloc Québécois. And last, but not least, the Bloc held onto the riding of Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot, just east of Montreal.

The fact that the NDP and Conservatives both won seats is not odd in and of itself. The NDP candidate in Outremont was a form provincial Liberal cabinet minister, and the Conservative candidate won in a riding that voted for the Action Democratique Party in the last provincial election. The results do, however, seem to indicate that the people of Quebec no longer automatically see the Liberal Party as their best option federally and that cannot bode well for party leader Stephan Dion.