Liberal Rachel Bendayan wins Outremont in byelection

Liberal Rachel Bendayanhas wonthe federalriding ofOutremontin Quebec after taking40 per cent of the vote with95 per cent ofpolls reporting.

"I will honour your vote by working very hard," she said Monday night at Liberal partyheadquarters in Montreal'sOutremont.

She stressed that the Liberals would continue to fight climate change and promote a national housing strategy.

Mlanie Joly, the minister of official languages and LaFrancophonie, said that despite losing to the NDP in 2015,Bendayanwas always a strong candidate who continued working in the riding in the years since.

"We hope this is the end of the Orange Wave inQuebec," Jolysaid Monday night.

The NDP, which hadheld the riding since 2007,trailedin second place with less than 30 per cent of the votes.

Voter turnout was low, as is typical for a byelection.Less than 20 per cent of the 70,400 registered voters in Outremont cast a ballot.

Political insiders had bet that the Liberals would retake the riding a welcome boost for thegoverning party's morale in the midst of theSNC-Lavalincontroversy.

"Tonight, the people ofOutremontand thousands of Canadians voting in these byelections have offered a strong vote of confidence in JustinTrudeau'spositive plan to strengthen the middle class," saidSuzanneCowan, president of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Analysts saidthe Outremont race was a crucial test for the NDP.

The riding had been a Liberal stronghold until Thomas Mulcair scored an upset in a 2007 byelection: the Liberals had lost the riding only once, to the Progressive Conservatives in 1988,since 1935.

The so-called Orange Wave followed in 2011 and boosted the NDP to Official Opposition status for the first time in its history.

While the party held onto just 16 Quebec seats in 2015, Quebec MPs still make up more than a third of the NDP caucus.

These are the candidates who ran in Outremontand how much of the vote they took by the time 95 per cent of ballots had been counted:

• 40 per cent: Rachel Bendayan Liberal Party of Canada.
• 29per cent: JuliaSnchez New Democratic Party.
• 13 per cent: DanielGreen Green Party of Canada.
• 11 per cent: MichelDuchesne BlocQubcois.
• 6 per cent: Jasmine Louras Conservative Party of Canada.
• 2 per cent: James Seale People's Party of Canada.
• 0.3 per cent: William Barrett Independent.