Update: Liberal Glen Pearson wins London North Centre 

In a federal by election it appears Liberal Glen Pearson is leading Green Party leader Elizabeth May.

Diane Haskett, former mayor and known for her religious right affiliations in the US is currently third. She ran for the Conservatives.

With 95 of 253 polls reporting for Ontario’s London North Centre, she stands at 28.1 per cent of the vote, just Pearson, who has 32.9 per cent.

Conservative Dianne Haskett is in third with 21.2 per cent.

If Elizabeth May loses to Pearson tonight, she will run in Cape Breton in the next election.

Haskett won her first term as mayor in 1995 and left for the US in 2000, moving back to Canada the end of October to run for the Conservative Party. ( a federal media spokesperson said she campaigned locally) and was accused by the Liberals of being muzzled. Haskett has been in the US working for a Republican faith based think tank, The International Center for Religion and Diplomacy,  and was an advisor to Senator Elizabeth Dole.
She got some local attention this election when she refused to answer a questionnaire by the City of London and another by Citizen Impact London. (Citizen Impact Canada requires it’s leaders to adhere to a statement of faith) She was a trustee of a private evangelical school in Virginia.

The NDP’s candidate Megan Walker against up against the Liberal candidate’s director of   communications, Dave Burghardt. Burghardt was fired after some of his comments on previous blogs were uncovered.

Burghardt also ripped the Liberal party as corrupt and greedy and sneered at its prized Kyoto accord on combatting global warming and the party’s opposition to missile defence.

Although Burghardt’s blogs were removed from the Internet last summer, Walker immediately seized on it as “raising very serious concerns about Glen Pearson’s judgment.”

She demanded a police investigation after Pearson’s team received an e-mail emanating from Walker’s campaign office in which one NDP worker gloated that the Burghardt blog was “pure gold” as ammunition to derail Pearson.