Montreal (EON) - Voters in the province of Quebec denied secessionists a chance to lead the French-speaking province out of Canada and handed the ruling Liberals a weak mandate in the process.
As the final votes were counted late Monday, the Liberals barely came out ahead with a minority government winning 48 of the province’s 125 seats.
The upstart Action Democratique (ADQ), whose socially conservative agenda resonated with rural voters in the province, garnered 42 seats and supplanted the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ), who finished third with 37 seats, in opposition.
Incumbent premier Jean Charest, once nicknamed “Captain Canada” for his role in the constitutional wars that consumed Canada throughout the second half of the 20th century, squeaked through on a late-night surge of votes after initial reports said he had lost.
Quebec elections are traditionally fought on how the province fits into the Canadian federation - 80 per cent of the 7.65 million people in the eastern province speak French as their first language, while English predominates among Canada’s other 25 million people.
Quebec elections have traditionally been fought between the PQ, who advocate creating a new country, and the Liberals who promote staying in Canada, over how to achieve that goal.
The rise of the ADQ, whose leader Mario Dumont, a former separatist who now advocates positioning Quebec as an autonomous region within a united Canada, threw the election into chaos, leaving the result in question up to the last moments of the campaign.
“Quebecers have spoken, and we have accepted their decision” Charest said in his subdued victory speech late Monday. “We have to recognize they rendered a severe judgment. We have lessons to learn.”
Toronto (EON) - Luckyrajah Paramanatha, known as his nickname “Lucky”, claimed his $18 million Lotto 649 jackpot Tuesday.
The previously purchased free play lottery ticket was bought at the Sunny Convenience Store on Eglinton Avenue East in Scarborough, Ontario (a suberb of Toronto). He checked them on March 19, the official draw date.
“I’m so happy,” Paramanathan said. “I can’t stop smiling…I started screaming. I never imagined I would win this much. I’m still shocked and overwhelmed.”
Paramanatha, 43, who lives in Scarborough, moved to Canada seven years ago and is a maintenance worker at a Toronto apartment building and cleans city swimming pools. He earns $48,000 a year from both jobs. Paramanatha said that he has been playing the lottery ever since he moved to get his wife and two sons, aged 7 and 10, from Sri Lanka to move to Canada.
“This win will allow me to bring my wife and two sons to Canada to start a new life,” he said.
He currently lives in an apartment building with his friend but plans later to buy a house with his family.
Hamilton (eCanadaNow) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a visit to Hamilton yesterday to watch the 2007 annual Tim Hortons Brier at the Copps Coliseum.
Harper, who is currently writing a book about the history of Hockey, admitted he’s a curling fan. He started to be a fan of curling in Winnipeg, Manitoba 10 years ago and said his father used to play it.
“I’ve never curled but my father did when I was very young,” he said. “I’ve followed the Brier for years. About the last decade or so I’ve made an effort to get to the Brier when I could. It is such a great Canadian tradition.”
He cheered on for Alberta’s Kevin Martin. Martin won 9-8 over players from Nova Scotia. Harper met with Kevin Martin after the event. Martin handed the PM his jersey from Monday’s game.
“I’ve obviously got a soft spot for Kevin Martin and Alberta because he’s had such a great career,” said Harper. “But what’s so great about the Brier is whoever wins is not like your normal pro athlete. They’re usually great community people and Canadians. It’s always easy to identify with whoever goes forward.”
Robin MacPherson of Hamilton sat in front of him. She wore a large crown and was draped in gold.
She got to meet the PM and was quoted saying: “Not a lot of people get to meet a prime minister.”
Sarajevo (EON) - Canada is to provide financial support to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in searching for people missing after a decade of conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, the Sarajevo-based ICMP said Tuesday.
Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina David Hutchings, who led a Canadian delegation on a visit to the ICMP facilities in the northern Bosnian city of Tuzla on Monday, announced that Ottawa would donate more than 1.3 million Canadian dollars (1.15 million US dollar) for ICMP’s work in the former Yugoslavia.
“We want to be part of ICMP’s ongoing efforts to identify victims of the conflicts in the region and to help provide closure to their families,” Hutchings said.
ICMP, according to its director Kathryne Bomberger, “has made over 11,000 DNA-assisted identifications of persons missing from of the conflicts in the region.”
In Bosnia alone, ICMP has so far made more than 4,000 DNA-assisted identifications of the victims of the massacre in the former eastern Bosnian Muslim enclave of Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb troops massacred up to 8,000 Muslim men in July 1995.
Some 17,500 people, according to ICMP, are still missing following the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.
Bosnia-Herzegovina, the ICMP said in a statement, leads with more than 13,000 persons still unaccounted for, in addition to some 2,400 persons still missing in Croatia and 2,200 missing after the conflict in Kosovo.