It’s a fact of life that, in those impossible ridings where your candidate will never succeed, the parties aren’t too thorough about background checks. The riding association (both of them) just picks a name out of a hat (preferably a woman/ethnic minority/young idealist), puts up some posters and waits to lose. I remember a Conservative candidate in a downtown riding who I’d known previously was a complete nutcase who used curse words even I would cringe at.

Unfortunately for Mario Dumont, a lot of candidates fit this description (long-shot, not necessarily nutcase), and their pasts are coming out to bite him in the ass. The latest, according to La Presse, is Gilles Taillon, in the Abitibi-Est riding which has swung back and forth between the PQ and Liberals.

Now Dumont doesn’t have the luxury of replacing candidates, so if he fires Taillon, he officially gives up on the riding.