In Manitoba’s Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette riding, Tory candidate Robert Sopuck was well ahead of his closest competitors when the first results started coming in around 10 p.m. ET, shortly after the polls closed. He is expected to hold the seat for the Conservatives in what is a stronghold riding for the party.
But in Manitoba’s other byelection in Winnipeg North, the Liberals and the NDP were in the midst of a tough fight. The NDP’s Kevin Chief is considered the front-runner, but Liberal candidate Kevin Lamoureux, a longtime former provincial politician, has a decent shot at taking the riding. As the results came in, Chief was maintaining only a slight lead, just under a two-percentage point of popular vote lead.
In the hottest of the three races, in Ontario’s Vaughan riding, Conservative star candidate Julian Fantino and Liberal Tony Genco were neck and neck as the early results were reported. By about 10:15 ET, Fantino had pulled ahead of Genco by about 380 votes.
Although the riding is a Liberal stronghold — held by Maurizio Bevilacqua for the last 22 years — the Conservatives are counting on their high-profile star candidate to steal it away. Fantino, the former head of several municipal police forces and the Ontario Provincial Police, is a well-known figure, particularly in the riding’s Italian-Canadian community.
Genco also has extensive community experience. The NDP’s candidate Kevin Bordian was nowhere near Fantino and Genco as the votes were tallied.The parties have all campaigned hard in the Vaughan byelection, eager to capture a seat in the Greater Toronto Area.
Making gains in that region is key for the Tories in their quest for a majority government; traditionally, the Liberals have been able to keep the edge over them.If Fantino pulls off a victory, it will give Prime Minister Stephen Harper a tough-talking spokesman to push his law-and-order agenda.
Some have speculated Fantino would be put in cabinet upon his arrival in Ottawa. Harper could easily make some adjustments to the cabinet in the near future, given the recent resignation of his environment minister, former Calgary MP Jim Prentice. Prentice announced a few weeks ago that he had taken a job as vice-chairman of CIBC.
Despite the long Liberal history in Vaughan, the party says it is not taking the riding for granted and is fighting for every vote.If the Liberals lose the seat, the defeat will be compared to the huge upset they suffered in another byelection in 2007 in Montreal’s Outremont riding. Thomas Mulcair’s victory for the NDP there rattled the Liberal party, which had secured that riding since it was created.All three of Monday’s byelections were triggered by MPs who left Ottawa to run in municipal elections this past fall.
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