We may have a Trudeauvolution in Canada

[mentalfloss]

How the Liberals won the great byelection showdown

Cue the excuses and the spin.

The Conservatives nearly lost their safe Manitoba seat of Brandon-Souris Monday night and the NDP failed to take either one of the Liberal strongholds in Toronto (Toronto-Centre) and Montreal (Bourassa) while losing substantial ground in Manitoba.

And before the losers start explaining that byelections are simply opportunities to send the governing party "a message" and that they don't really matter, remember the words of Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier this month:

"Don't let anyone tell you this byelection doesn't matter — there's a lot on the line," he told Brandon voters in a letter.

Indeed there was — leadership.

This was the first opportunity for all three parties to gauge the impact of the Senate scandal and another chance to test the appeal of NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, neither of whom has led their parties in a general election.

When the prime minister called the byelections he could scarcely have imagined his party would come so close to losing Brandon and see the Liberals in the other Manitoba riding up for grabs, Provencher, do as well as they did.

CBC News - Byelection results: How the Liberals won the showdown

 

[Walter]

CBC writers should move to Comedy Central.

How is status-quo a Lib victory when we would be hard pressed to find any good news for the Cons since the so-called Senate scandal broke?

 

[tay]

A Trudeauvolution indeed.

People are getting bored of the Harper Cons and their numerous stumbles and I think they will get slapped next election.

I really miss Layton and even though Mulcair is one smart guy he's not from the media center of Canada so he isn't getting the press time that Layton got so his brilliance is not going to be well known...................

Even CTV calls it status quo



Keeping the status quo was a hard-won battle for Conservatives in the Manitoba riding of Brandon-Souris, where Tory candidate Larry Maguire won the federal byelection by just 391 votes Monday night


Liberals win in Toronto, Quebec; Tories take 2 Manitoba ridings in byelection | CTV News

 

[taxslave]

The real news here is that the Liberals managed to (barley) hold on to their existing seats in spite of trudeau.

 

[petros]

The same way MB barley growers around Brandon almost voted out the Con in spite of Harper?

 

[mentalfloss]

 

[Goober]

The same way MB barley growers around Brandon almost voted out the Con in spite of Harper?

Yep- They really screwed that nomination up.

 

[petros]

That is even with the Bakken Oil boom hitting Brandon Souris (a beautiful piece of prairie that grows amazing barley). The town of Souris is really nice and they of course have a Chicken Chef so fine dining and offsale liquor and barley beer are readily available.

 

[BornRuff]

The real news here is that the Liberals managed to (barley) hold on to their existing seats in spite of trudeau.

The Liberals won their two seats by much larger margin than they did in the previous election.

In Brandon, they went from only 5% of the vote in the last election, behind even the Green Party, to 42% of the vote, less than 2% behind the winner.

In Provencher they went from 6% to 30% of the vote.

In this election it seems to show that the Liberals have reestablished themselves as the alternative to the conservatives. The NDP might be in for a rough ride in the next election.