[xtypo_dropcap]T[/xtypo_dropcap]hree by-elections Monday left the NDP shut out with the Conservatives claiming two seats and the Liberals one. The Tories took a tight race in Vaughan, Ontario, with star candidate and former police chief Julian Fantino who beat Liberal Tony Genco by less than 3 percent, with the NDP barely on the map.
Liberal Kevin Lamoureux squeezed ahead of NDP candidate Kevin Chief to take Winnipeg North with a small showing for Conservative candidate Julie C. Javier.
The only landslide was blue when Robert Sopuck took Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette for the Conservatives, with a whopping 56.7 percent of the vote to 26.3 percent for NDP runner-up Denise Harder.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff celebrated the newest Grit to join the official opposition bench Wednesday, saying Lamoureux exemplified the best of what the Liberal Party stood for. The Grits have interpreted the close loss in Vaughan as a good showing given wide expectations that Fantino would win. Vaughan had previously been a Liberal stronghold.
