Since Stephen Harper became leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, he has led his side through 30 by-elections. His party’s record in those by-elections? Pretty good. Conservatives held 7 seats in which they were the incumbent, stole 4 seats from another incumbent party, and suffered 1 loss. In the rest, they were neither the incumbent nor were able to steal. Continue reading By-election scorecards: How have party leaders fared?
Tomorrow, voters in the riding of Labrador will go the polls. According to three polls of voters there, the Liberal candidate, Yvonne Jones appears to be the prohibitive favourite.
If she wins, it will be the first time the federal Liberal caucus will have grown as the result of an electoral event* in nearly a decade.
Here is the list of electoral events going back to the last electoral event which saw the number of seats held by the Liberals in the House of Commons increase: Continue reading Monday could be a day the Liberals haven't seen for a decade
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced this morning that a by-election will be held in the federal riding of Labrador on May 13. The riding became vacant after Conservative MP Peter Penashue, then a member of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet, admitted that his campaign violated federal election finance laws in the May 2011 general election. Penashue, in that general election, won by a handful of votes and it was quite reasonable to assume that the extra illegal spending his campaign did in that general election could have made the difference.
Elections Canada is still investigating the over-spending and its investigation will be unaffected by the by-election. Moreover, Penashue is not avoiding any sanction he may face from Elections Canada by resigning and running again. That peril will still exist for Penashue regardless of the by-election and its outcome.
This by-election really won’t change a thing in the House of Commons. No matter who wins, the Conservatives will still have a majority; the NDP will still be the Official Opposition; and the Liberals will still be the third party. And yet, for a by-election that means so little in the big scheme of things (though obviously a big deal for the good people of the riding), there is a surprising amount of political capital at stake. For that reason, expect all three of those parties to be campaigning heavily to win. Some notes on what’s at stake …
Continue reading The writ drops in Labrador with a surprising amount at stake
On Monday, three by-elections were held.
Easy to figure out the winners because they’re the ones with the most votes.
But what does it all mean? That’s not so easy to figure out, apparently, but I try here: Continue reading Pundits Puzzle Over Meaning of By-Elections!