With the mixed results of the by-elections last night it looks like we will be saved from the inevitable wingeing, hand wringing and cringeing from Liberals, activities that had already begun to happen in some parts of the Liberal blogsphere ever before the elections results were in.
Certainly the usual suspects are going to spin this in a way that suits their interests.
Conservatives are spinning it as a big victory.
Some in the media have stated the results are a further indication that the Liberals are in trouble. Then again the MSM in this country has been writing the political obituary of the Liberal Party for more than 5 years yet it just keeps sticking around.
Then there are some Liberals who are spinning it as really bad news but invaribly they are all Liberals who have expressed great displeasure in Mr. Ignatieff as the leader of the Party and they take any setback, real or otherwise, to butress their prejudice. They remind me of Habs fans who seem to relish the idea of Carey Price having a bad season just so they could be proven "right" in their assessment that the Canadiens traded the wrong goaltender. Or in other words their dislike of Mr. Ignatieff is more important to them than finally relegating Mr. Harper and his government to the dust bin of history. Sad really.
The reality of course is these were by-elections. They do not indicate any big trends for the upcoming general election; the results of them do not change the political landscape in Parliament and the only people who really care about them are the few that voted in the by-elections, political commentators who work for free and seem to have way too much time on their hands and paid political commentators who need to keep their bosses happy. The wider Canadian public probably were not even aware that by-elections took place last night until they read about it in this morning's newspapers.
In the end these were victories for the individual candidates that won in each riding and nothing more.
2 comments:
Ottlib,
I agree, no real win for anybody. It was a bit of a push, except for the acqusition of Fantino by the CPC (if he doesn't turn out to be an embarrassment).
The NDP did take a bit of a kicking. So sad.
However, one thing I really must point out to Liberal supporters.
The NDP + Green's will be polling roughly 20% higher in the GTA during a general election. That 20% won't be coming out of the CPC vote. Therefore, Liberal's better hope that it is all hidden in low voter turn out. Because, if it isn't, there will be ridings where the CPC slides up the middle. They won't need 45% of the vote to do it.
Base voters:
Both the NDP and Liberals lost a massive amount of their base in their safe seats?
The Liberals recovered from 3rd place in 2008 to move to first. The CPC did not fare well in WPG north.
The CPC in Vaughan were 130 votes from 2008. The NDP vote collapsed in Vaughan.
The opposition vs CPC in raw votes bleed 2 for 1 in losses in GOTV.
25k to 13k.
I did not find any support from Maurizio for Tony Genco. Anyone believe if he or his team were behind the Liberals they would have not carried the race?
The NDP Judy and team were unable to help their rookie. They may have been unprepared to lose to Katz and did not recover/fatigue.
The three contest the change is a move to the right with the loss of the NDP seat to Lib. The Lib seat to CPC.
If strategic voting took place it worked well.
CPC+Lib knock of NDP WPG
Lib+NDP fail to knock off CPC Vaughan
NDP voters failed to show for their party.
The NDP moved up in Dauphin.
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