En direct

8:17: Les Iles re-elect Maxime Arsenault. Not a good sign for Charest; it was one of the PLQ's best pickup aspirations.

8:24: CBC, please stop reading so much into one reported poll.

8:28: ADQ leading in Prévost and a strong second in Argenteuil, both with multiple polls reporting. Mario is going to have a very good night.

8:35: ADQ in the lead in Bertrand and the belwether Saint-Jean. A very, very, good night.

8:36: ADQ leading in Laviolette, a must-hold for Charest.

8:38: A ray of sunshine for Charest: Mamelonet is holding on to a slight PLQ lead in Gaspé. Mitigating factor: Laval-des-Rapides is tilting PQ.

8:40: ADQ leading in Blainville.

8:46: Boulet clinging to life in Laviolette. Boisclair is toast. Total board 45-45.

8:51: No ADQ breakthrough in the mining-forestry belt from Ungava-Abitibi through to la Côte-Nord.

8:52: ADQ and PQ tied in the pop vote; ADQ and PLQ swapping the seat-count lead. Who will be the first party to adopt PR?

8:55: Orford is tight. So is Sherbrooke. Sherbrook is unhappily tight for Charest, albeit with 16 polls reporting.

8:58: ADQ is only behind by less than 4% in Fabre, West Island.... Laval. Narrowly ahead in Vimont. PLQ narrowly back in the lead in Laval-des-Rapides. PQ breathing down Charest's neck in Mille-Iles.

9:04: That's novel: Bernard Derome has called the flavour of the government (minoritaire), before its colour!

9:09: PLQ back in the lead in Laviolette; PQ back in the lead in Gaspé; ADQ takes the pole position in Fabre.

9:13: This is a realignment, Maggie. Re-a-lign-ment.

9:25: Laviolette stays PLQ. Verchères has the PQ ahead of the ADQ by less than a point. Verchères!!!!

9:29: All is forgiven in Mirabel.

9:32: ADQ at over 15% on the West Island; still a threat to the PLQ in Soulanges.

9:38: ADQ elected in Huntingdon and L'Assomption. That's gotta hurt (x2).

9:48: PQ vote in Duplessis is back below 50%. But metro Chicoutimi-Jonquière is a PQ sweep.

9:54: Bernard Drainville is elected on the South Shore. Why, oh why, couldn't the ADQ inroads have made it that far?

10:00: PQ third in Châteauguay. Ouch.

10:06: Si la tendance se maintien... Radio-Canada calls it.

10:09: The ADQ takes the lead away from the PLQ in Orford.

10:21: Winning the war, but losing the battle; Jean Charest pulls a Bourassa-esque faceplant in Sherbrooke.

10:26: labradore calls Matane for the PQ, since no one else will, with a 200+ PQ lead and just two polls left to report.

10:33: Parisella & cie. are talking about Charest in the past tense.

10:40: Mégantic-Compton is PLQ, all polls in; Crémazie has Lisette Lapointe with an insurmountable PQ lead; 50 votes' lead for the PQ in Rouyn-Noranda-Témiscamingue with 50 polls to go; ADQ holding a lead of less than 100 votes in Johnson with 7 polls to report; Fabre is almost declarable for the PLQ sweep of Laval; why are they so slow counting in Orford?; and will you please just call Matane?

10:45: Why does Gilles Duceppe think he's more relevant and electable than André Boisclair?

10:54: Fabre goes PLQ by less than 3%. Reid has something vaguely resembling a lead now in Orford.

10:56: Has there ever been a negative "federalist ballot-box bonus" before?

11:00: Just for HappyFun™, punching the popular vote figures as they are reported at this hour into the HKDP machine, and it predicts a Liberal minority government: 44 seats, ADQ 42, PQ 39.

11:18: For even more HappyFun™, punching the popular vote figures as they are reported at this hour into the HKDP machine, but awarding all of the Québec Solidaire votes to the PQ... and it predicts a PQ minority government: 54 seats; PLQ 41; ADQ 30.

11:27: Charest is back in the lead in Sherbrooke, a substantial one, with 25 polls to report.

11:42: Really, now: Mommy, what's "autonomisme"?

11:46: With a handful of exceptions, the map of PLQ ridings looks an awful lot like the map of PLC ridings. Even a lot of the other PLQ ridings (Bonaventure, Brome-Missisquoi) look an awful lot like those areas of Quebec federal ridings that voted in 2004 and 2006 for losing PLC candidates. This should please Harper how?

11:51: Trivia question. Someone please answer it as the cure to an impending case of insomnia: Who called Josée Légault a "sovereignist cow"? Yes, it was sexist.

11:54: Comment se traduit "hanging chad"?

11:57: The outcome was never in doubt!