Ottawa

More surprise candidates – each more surprising than the last!

This time, under the Conservative banner! 

Former Progressive Conservative MP Andre Bachand will be running in Sherbrooke, according to Radio Canada (warning: linked page contains French). A die-hard opponent of the Canadian Alliance/PC merger who briefly ran for the leadership of the PCs, Bachand eventually dropped out of the race to support Peter MacKay, who was seen as the leading anti-merger candidate, and — yeah, y’all know how well that worked out.

Anyway, Bachand sat as an Independent Progressive Conservative until 2004, at which point he retired from public life — until now. He’ll be facing off against the Bloc Quebecois’ Serge Cardin, who pretty much massacred the Tory candidate in the last election, but presumably will have a much tougher fight against Bachand.

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