Ottawa area news/rumours (and one Quebec nomination)

Just got back from a great time phone canvassing for Scott Bradley (more on that in a bit), but I have heard two pieces of news in the Ottawa area:

Isabel Metcalfe, who had been considering a bid for the Ottawa Centre nomination, has dropped out. With Metcalfe out, it looks increasingly likely that the race will come down to Bradley vs. Yale, although rumours a third candidate have not entirely gone out.

In perhaps juicer news, apparently one of the pieces of gossip going around the big Tory training conference going on in Ottawa the last couple days is the John Baird is considering not running in the next election. Baird has basically served as Harper's Ontario lieutenant since getting elected in 2006 and as constantly been considered one of the most powerful ministers in cabinet, so him leaving would be a blow. Also interesting, is that even if this rumour turns out to be totally false, I have had more than a couple people tell me that staffers for Jason Kenney are behind said rumours.

Also, Joliette held it's Liberal nomination meeting today, and 2008 candidate Suzie St-Onge will carry the Liberal banner once again, according to this article: http://www.laction.com/article-361914-Suzie-StOnge-sera-candidate-liberale-dans-Joliette.html

The riding is held by BQ House Leader Pierre Paquette, who many have seen as a potential successor to Gilles Duceppe (and who made a declaration that he was considering running for BQ leadership during the 24 hour period in which it seemed Duceppe would depart for the PQ leadership race). Despite being one of the few Quebec seats to regularly send a Tory back to Quebec between 1968-1984 in the form of Roch La Salle, the BQ has held the seat with large margins since 1993, the "closest" election between 2000, when Paquette was taking over from a BQ incumbant, but still won the riding by a 52%-34% margin, and it wouldn't be a stretch to say the seat is one of the safest in the province for the BQ.