MONTREAL — A Superior Court judge has rejected the Bloc Quebecois’s request for a new election in the Montreal-area riding won by the Liberals in April by a single vote.
Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagne, the Bloc candidate, had challenged the result in the Terrebonne riding after a Bloc voter revealed that her special ballot was returned to her because of an error in the address on the envelope provided by Elections Canada.
In a ruling today, Justice Eric Dufour says the postal code error does not constitute an irregularity as defined under federal electoral law.
Dufour says the human administrative error was committed inadvertently and without any malicious or fraudulent intent and did not impact the integrity of the electoral system.
The judge says expanding the definition of election irregularity to include administrative errors would open the door to numerous contestations.
Dufour writes that annulling an election in a riding should only occur in the most serious of cases.
The Liberals won a minority government in the April general election, with Liberal Tatiana Auguste winning Terrebonne by one ballot.
