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Prime Minister Stephen Harper walks away after a television interview with Mike Duffy in the foyer of the House of Commons on Feb. 20, 2007.

Monday, November 9, 2009 1:12 PM

It's Mike Duffy vs. Darrell Dexter in N.S.

Bill Curry

Today’s federal by-election in Nova Scotia is a curious one, given that 69 per cent of voters cast their ballots here for Independent MP Bill Casey in 2008.

Mr. Casey’s now off to work for the Nova Scotia government. The big question is whether the voters of Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley will return to their conservative roots or explore other options.

Mr. Casey’s hold on the riding dated back to 1988 – though he did lose to the Liberals once in 1993.

The Conservative ads in the riding this campaign suggest the New Democrats are their main target, given their flyers focused on “the Ottawa NDP.” The recent election of an NDP government in Nova Scotia under Darrell Dexter has New Democrats feeling competitive.

The NDP finished a distant second in 2008 with 12.3 per cent.

On Saturday, the Amherst Daily News reported that Conservative Senator Mike Duffy was in the riding to support the Tory candidate.

His appearance came just a day after his testy on-air exchange with NDP MP Peter Stoffer, in which he accused the NDP of releasing a report criticizing Tory Senate appointments as an effort to sway today’s by-election results. Mr. Duffy was the target of a scathing editorial cartoon by the Halifax Chronicle-Herald's Bruce MacKinnon as a result.

In 2006 when Mr. Casey ran as a Conservative, he won with 52 per cent, followed by the Liberals at 23.9 per cent and the NDP at 20.7 per cent.

This time, the Conservatives are running elementary school principal Scott Armstrong, the NDP candidate is wild blueberry farmer Mark Austin, the Liberal candidate is dairy farmer Jim Burrows and the Greens are running addiction counselor Jason Blanch.

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Ottawa Notebook Contributors

Jane Taber, senior political writer

Jane Taber

Jane Taber has been on Parliament Hill since the Mulroney days, first writing for the Ottawa Citizen in 1986. Since then, she's reported for a small television network, WTN, and for the National Post before joining The Globe’s parliamentary bureau in 2002. She is the senior political writer and also co-host of Question Period, which airs Sundays on CTV.

 
John Ibbitson

John Ibbitson

John Ibbitson started at The Globe in 1999 and has been Queen's Park columnist and Ottawa political affairs correspondent. Most recently, he was a correspondent and columnist in Washington, where he wrote Open and Shut: Why America has Barack Obama and Canada has Stephen Harper. He returned to Ottawa as bureau chief in 2009. Before joining The Globe, he worked as a reporter, columnist and Queen’s Park correspondent for Southam papers.

 

Steven Chase

Steven Chase has covered federal politics in Ottawa for The Globe since mid-2001. He's previously worked in the paper's Vancouver and Calgary bureaus. Prior to that, he reported on Alberta politics for the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun, and on national issues for Alberta Report. He's had ink-stained hands for far longer though, having worked as a paperboy for the (now defunct) Montreal Star, the Winnipeg Free Press, the Vancouver Sun and the North Shore News.

 
Deputy Ottawa bureau chief Campbell Clark

Campbell Clark

Campbell Clark has been a political writer in The Globe and Mail’s Ottawa bureau since 2000. Before that he worked for The Montreal Gazette and the National Post. He writes about Canadian politics and foreign policy. He stopped being fascinated by ShamWow commercials after that guy’s nasty incident in Florida, but still wonders if one can really pull a truck with that Mighty Putty stuff.

 

Bill Curry

A member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery since 1999, Bill Curry worked for The Hill Times and the National Post prior to joining The Globe in Feb. 2005. Originally from North Bay, Ont., Bill reports on a wide range of topics on Parliament Hill. He is very protective of the office copy of Marleau & Montpetit.

 

Gloria Galloway

Gloria Galloway has been a journalist for almost 30 years. She worked at the Windsor Star, the Hamilton Spectator, the National Post, the Canadian Press and a number of small newspapers before being hired by The Globe and Mail as deputy national editor in 2001. Gloria returned to reporting two years later and joined the Ottawa bureau in 2004. She has covered every federal election since 1997 and has done several tours in Afghanistan.

 

Daniel Leblanc

Daniel Leblanc studied political science at the University of Ottawa and journalism at Carleton University. He became a full-time reporter in 1998, first at the Ottawa Citizen and then in the Ottawa bureau of The Globe and Mail. While he likes the occasional brown envelope, he is also open to anonymous emails.

 

Stephen Wicary

Stephen Wicary has been with The Globe since 2001, working on the news desk as a copy editor, page designer, production editor and front page editor. During the U.S invasion of Iraq, he pulled a three-month stint as overnight editor of the website. He moved to the parliamentary bureau at the end of 2008 to bolster online political coverage.