Quebec shock jock only Independent MP elected
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 | 11:35 AM ET
CBC News
André Arthur won the riding of Portneuf-Jacques-Cartier with almost 40 per cent of the vote, compared to almost 28 per cent for his nearest rival, the Bloc Québécois's Guy Côté.
Côté had held the predominantly francophone riding, which is home to the Val Cartier military base, since the 2004 election. Liberal Claude Duplain occupied the seat for one term before that.
Arthur, 62, had an outspoken style that spawned many lawsuits, including legal actions launched by former Quebec premiers Lucien Bouchard and Daniel Johnson. His mainstream radio career ended just before Christmas, when his employer did not renew his contract.
André Arthur won the riding of Portneuf-Jacques-Cartier. (courtesy CKNU)
He once said that African students at Laval University were the children of dictators and cannibals. That remark was one reason why the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission decided to strip Quebec City radio station CHOI-FM of its licence in 2004.
- FROM JULY 15, 2004: Critics divided over shutdown of Quebec radio station
Arthur told reporters Monday night that he has no intention of muting his style in Ottawa.
"At 62, you don't change," the Montreal Gazette quoted him as saying.
During the campaign, he said he intended to stand up for voters disgusted with traditional politics.
"Most people, when I talk with them, tell me about how fed up they are with rotten politics, and the disrespect they get from the political parties," he said.
In the last election, voters also elected one Independent MP to the 308-seat House of Commons. That was Chuck Cadman in the British Columbia riding of Surrey North.
Cadman ended up saving the minority Liberal government from defeat on a confidence vote in May 2005 before dying of cancer two months later.
