Roundup: By-election holds in all ridings

Posted on by

There weren’t really any surprises in the by-election results last night, as both the Liberals and Conservatives held their respective seats. Both Liberals handily won their respective seats, getting over 50 percent of the votes in each riding, and they were a fairly close second in Oxford, but didn’t quite make it in the end with that seat. In Winnipeg South Centre, the fact that the Conservatives didn’t even crack 25 percent of the vote should be of concern to them, because this is the kind of riding they need to win if they’re going to form government, and they can’t. Again, in Oxford, the fact that the results were that close in a fairly safe Conservative riding should give them pause.

And then there’s Portage—Lisgar, and the big showdown with Maxime Bernier there, where the Conservatives wanted to “destroy” him. I’m not sure they succeeded, as the Conservatives got around 65 percent of the vote, and Bernier got around 17 percent, so I’m not sure it’s quite the “destruction” they had hoped for. It also came at a cost where they largely absorbed Bernier’s rhetoric in order to entice his votes to the Conservative party, but that is likely to have consequences, as they shift the Overton window ever further to the right, and far-right talking points become more mainstreamed.

Moving forward, expect each winner to visit their respective caucus meetings on Wednesday, and for Anna Gainey from Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount to make it into Cabinet in short order during the upcoming shuffle, because she’s one of the few people that Trudeau trusts, which is why the government has as many problems as it does.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russia launched another large air raid overnight, targeting mostly Kyiv but also other cities but no casualties have been reported. In part this is because Ukraine has been building a three-stage defence system using the technology provided by Western partners. Meanwhile, the counter-offensive slogs on, with Ukrainian officials promising that the biggest blow is yet to come.

Good reads:

  • While in Nova Scotia to meet with firefighters, Justin Trudeau also talked about his hopes for the Atlantic Loop to provide Quebec hydro to the Atlantic provinces.
  • Brian Mulroney offered praise for Justin Trudeau at an event in Antigonish, particularly for his ability to re-negotiate NAFTA under Trump.
  • Mélanie Joly says that Canada will continue to engage with China in spite of their attempts at foreign interference.
  • Jonathan Wilkinson and Dominic LeBlanc were in Calgary to hold talks with Danielle Smith around the sustainable jobs plan, and other federal policy issues.
  • A design has finally been chosen for the Afghan war monument in Ottawa.
  • The government announced new sanctions against members of Iran’s judiciary for human rights violations.
  • A number of economists are pouring cold water on Pierre Poilievre’s talking points about deficits fuelling inflation.
  • The Conservatives all voted in favour of the Liberal bill to enshrine their child care deals witsh the provinces, for what that’s worth.

Odds and ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take walks through why Bill C-83 is not responsible for Paul Bernardo’s transfer to medium security.

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.