Charest Liberals win Quebec election

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[q url=http://www.winnipegsun.com/News/Canada/2008/12/08/7678261.html]

Threepeat a rare feat in Quebec

By The Canadian Press

MONTREAL — Jean Charest recaptured a majority government on Monday as the Quebec Liberals swept to a commanding victory in the provincial election barely a year after voters had slapped them down to minority status.

Charest’s victory places him in the pantheon of Quebec premiers to have achieved three consecutive election wins — a rare feat not even managed by political legends like Rene Levesque, Robert Bourassa, Jean Lesage and Lucien Bouchard.

The electoral feat — last attained in Quebec more than a half-century ago — carries a host of potential implications for Canadian politics and will be greeted as welcome news in the nation’s capital.

Charest’s Liberals won or were leading in about 70 of the province’s 125 ridings, while the Parti Quebecois won the bulk of opposition seats. The Action democratique du Quebec, the upstart right-wing party that found itself last year within a whisker of power, was restored to its traditional place in Quebec’s electoral wasteland.

Premier Jean Charest’s Liberals have been re-elected with a majority government.

Charest became the first Quebec premier since the 1950s to win three mandates in a row — a feat last accomplished by Union nationale strongman Maurice Duplessis.

In 2007, Charest had been the first Quebec premier to be held to a minority government since 1878.