CBC - Nova Scotia Votes 2003

DISTRICT: CLARE

Candidate

Party

Vote Count

Pop. Vote

Wayne Gaudet

Liberal

3547

61.55%

Marc Boudreau

Conservative

1456

25.26%

Don Melanson

New Democrat

760

13.19%

Last Update Tue Aug 5 10:44:24 ADT 2003

26 of 26 polls reporting

CLARE (11)

Candidates:

Liberal: Wayne Gaudet

NDP: Don Melanson

PC: Marc Boudreau

Current MLA: Wayne Gaudet (LIB)

Riding Profile: The Acadian riding of Clare, located in Digby County in southwest Nova Scotia, is about 80 per cent French speaking. It's home to the province's only French-language university, Universite Ste-Anne at Church Point, and North America's oldest Acadian festival.

The fishing communities of Weymouth in the north and Salmon River in the south serve as bookends for the riding.

Lobster and scallop catches in St. Mary's Bay and along the Fundy coast are critical to the economy. Comeau Seafoods is one of the largest employers in the riding.

Boat building (including pleasure craft as well as fishing trawlers) has boomed in recent years at yards such as A.F. Theriault & Sons in Meteghan. The area is generally more prosperous that it used to be, and the rate of emigration by young people is lower than in other rural areas of the province.

The average income is $21,290, and the population is 9,340.

Forty-nine per cent of residents have not completed high school but 30 per cent have some post-secondary education.

Issues: Education issues, which were red hot in the last campaign, have been overtaken in this campaign by road repairs and car insurance.

Political History: This riding has generally voted Liberal since the 1970s, with the exception of the 1984 and 1988 elections, when Clare chose "the government side" and sent PC Guy Leblanc to represent them during the Buchanan years.

Although Clare often bucks the provincial trend, people in the riding acknowledge they receive more attention and government services when they back the winning party.

Wayne Gaudet, a former education minister and interim Liberal leader, has represented Clare for 10 years.


1999:	LIB Wayne Gaudet received 2,705 votes to defeat PC Paul Comeau who received 2,355 and NDP Don Melanson with 1,078.
1998:	LIB Wayne Gaudet defeated PC Guy LeBlanc by 372 votes in a very tight battle.
1993:	LIB Wayne Gaudet defeated PC Guy LeBlanc by 607 votes.
1988:	PC Guy LeBlanc defeated LIB Nadine Boudreau by 814 votes.

Voter Turnout: in 1999 was one of the highest in the province at 87 per cent.

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