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By JIM FOX
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 3, 2000
Quebec to reap benefits of Chretien's third win
Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien is expected to reward Quebec with more representation in the Cabinet after his decisive election victory.
As the first prime minister to win three straight majority governments in 60 years, voters turned aside the separatist movement of the Bloc Quebecois and elected more Liberals in Monday's election.
The Liberals won 36 of 75 seats in mainly French-speaking Quebec, their best showing since the 1980s era of Pierre Trudeau.
As well, voters electing 17 Liberals in three straight elections in Western and Northern Canada is "unprecedented," Chretien said.
The Liberals increased their majority in the Commons to 172 seats from 161 while the right-wing Canadian Alliance claimed 64 of its 66 members elected west of Ontario.
Other parties slipped, with the Bloc Quebecois at 38 elected, the New Democrats 13 and the Conservatives 12.
With polls showing there was no question Chretien, 66, would win his third term, voter turnout slipped to 62.8 percent of eligible voters, the lowest in 75 years.
A Canadian university professor who tested the controversial U.S. butterfly ballot on Canadian shoppers says there's no question it's flawed.
Robert Sinclair, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Alberta, said it took only a few hours to prove scientifically there is trouble with that type of ballot.
Twenty percent of shoppers tested at an Edmonton mall mistakenly voted for the wrong person when they used the ballot, he said.
The ballot has come under fire in Florida, where many residents in Palm Beach County have complained they might have mistakenly voted for Reform candidate Pat Buchanan rather than Democrat Al Gore.
A new poll shows support slipping for independence in Quebec. Fifty-five percent of decided respondents said they would reject independence while 35 percent were in favor of splitting. About 1,000 people were asked the same question on sovereignty as in the 1995 referendum when independence was rejected by 50.6 percent of voters.
Two British Columbia men facing murder and conspiracy charges in the bombing of an Air India jet in 1985 were remanded in custody when they appeared in a Vancouver court Thursday. Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were arrested last month for the bombing that killed 329 people. They also face trial for planting a bomb that killed two baggage handlers at a Tokyo airport an hour before Flight 182 went down.
Canada's jobless rate held steady at 6.9 percent in November, Statistics Canada said Friday.
After Canada's election, the dollar gained strength but dropped back Friday to 64.99 cents U.S. while the American greenback returned $1.5386 Canadian, before bank exchange fees.
There's no change in the Bank of Canada key interest rate of 6 percent or the 7.5 percent prime lending rate.
Stock markets are lower with the Toronto 300 Index at 8,962 points Friday while the Canadian Venture Exchange index 2,910 points.
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