ADQ candidates get pounded in byelections as PQ and Liberals keep seats

The Parti Quebecois held onto two Montreal strongholds, while the governing Liberals kept a riding in western Quebec.

PQ candidate Nicole Leger romped to victory in Pointe-aux-Trembles with about 55 per cent of the vote, while former Bloc Quebecois MP Maka Kotto won Bourget for the sovereigntist party with about 40 per cent.

Liberal Maryse Gaudreault emerged victorious in Hull, a longtime Grit riding, with more than 45 per cent of the popular vote.

The byelection results give the Liberals 48 members in the 125-seat legislature, the ADQ 41 and the PQ 36.

PQ Leader Pauline Marois was ebullient as she stood next to Kotto and spoke about Quebec independence.

"I am certain Maka Kotto will be one of those who will enable us to reach that goal - a Quebec that is ours, a Quebec that is sovereign and independent," Marois said.

But the real story Monday was the ADQ's meltdown.

In Bourget, the party dropped to fourth with about 10 per cent of the popular vote, with candidate Denis Mondor trailing candidates from the established parties as well as Green party Leader Scott McKay.

Mondor's result compared with ADQ candidate Clairmont de la Croizetiere's 23 per cent and second-place finish in Bourget in the general election in March 2007.

In Pointe-aux-Trembles, the drop was just as dramatic, with star candidate Diane Bellemare getting only 14 per cent of the vote as she struggled lamely into third.

The party got 26.5 per cent of the vote in 2007 and came in second behind then-PQ leader Andre Boisclair.

The humiliation was completed in Hull where candidate Jean-Philip Ruel obtained just more than three per cent of the popular vote and finished a distant fifth. That left him behind the Green party candidate and Bill Clennett, the Quebec solidaire candidate maybe best known in English Canada for being choked in the 1990s by then-prime minister Jean Chretien.

Dumont put some of the blame for the results on the low turnouts - less than 35 per cent in each of the three ridings.

"The results are disappointing," Dumont said. "Byelections are unforgiving, especially with turnouts that are so low."

Dumont's party had pinned its hopes on making a breakthrough in the Montreal ridings.

But the ADQ has been in a freefall in recent public opinion polls, with one survey pegging its support as low as 17 per cent, way behind the Liberals and the PQ.

The party has been criticized for being too centred around Dumont, although it has also suffered from a spike in support for Premier Jean Charest and his Liberal government.

Charest pointed out that the Liberals were the only party to increase their support in the three byelections.

"Quebecers want a government that listens to them, that is present in outlying regions and puts the emphasis on the economy," he said in Hull.

The byelections were the first in Quebec since Marois was elected to the legislature last fall.