Jean LaPierre has announced that he has taken a job with TVA, and will be resigning his seat in Parliament as of February.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... ional/home

I can't say I'm dissapointed to see him go. I've always had reservations about what the guy stands for - as a Quebec Nationalist and co-founder of the Bloc - and I never believed his strategy in Quebec would be viable.

Of course, he is in a lot of ways the ideological opposite of Stephane Dion in the party, so it's not a surprise he's moving on. Jean Chrétien once famously told the press he would have banned LaPierre from the party permanently if he'd thought he had the power to do so.

Of course, this causes all kinds of interesting speculation about who will be the next candidate in Outremont. There had been a lot of talk about Justin Trudeau running there, but the article above notes that it may be better for Dion to support a woman to help his pledge to increase female representation.

If Trudeau doesn't run here, expect a lot of speculation surrounding the future of Irwin Cotler - whose wife recently resigned her party membership over Israel. Cotler, of course, holds the Mount Royal riding that was once represented by P.E.T.

   

heee I wonder if that's why he IS leaving....so Trudeau can get in lol

   

An altogether positive development for the Liberal party.