By-election Wrap Up - Conservatives-2, Coalition-1

Well the by-elections have come and gone now.  First of all I would like to congratulate the winners from last night. Conservatives easily keep their seat in Dauphin, win a Liberal stronghold in Vaughn bringing them closer to a majority, and Winnipeg North, that seat switched from one coalition partner to another (from NDP to Lib).  Conservatives were not expected to win in Winnipeg North anyway so no real loss there for them.

If this is a taste for the next general election, I suspect Liberals in the GTA will be a tad nervous as they are now vulnerable.  Winnipeg North, should Jack Layton be nervous?  Maybe, maybe not but I bet he's and his party are lickin' their wounds today. NDP didn't do that well in any of the ridings.  NDP could very well take it back next time.  Who knows?  Here is one Lib blogger's take on what happened.

As for the Liberals, Kevin Lamoureux's victory was an aberration. Lamoureux won by promising to be tough on crime. In other words, he won by promising to be a Conservative in riding that would never vote for a real Conservative.

 Do by-elections mean anything?  Well it's usually a referendum on the governing party. It's a chance for the electorate to voice a protest against the government. Look what happened just weeks ago in the US in their midterm elections. The governing party got "a shellacking."  In this case, the governing party did well so the voters must be satisfied with the way current Conservative government is governing.

So no matter what the spin doctors on the Lib and Dippers side say, Conservatives should be pleased with these by-elections and prepare for the next round of by-elections and/or the next general election which ever comes first.  It will all depend on how soon the opposition coalition want to defeat the Conservative government. Judging from what happened last night I bet their thinking long and hard if they want to take down the government anytime soon.

In the mean time and off topic  Don Martin will be gracing your television sets every night as the new host of  CTV's Power Play.