OTTAWA – Conservative candidate Larry Maguire has won the federal byelection in the closely watched Manitoba riding of Brandon-Souris, edging out Liberal challenger Rolf Dinsdale by 391 votes.
For Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, the narrow loss – Maguire took 44.1 per cent of the vote, compared to Liberal rival Rolf Dinsdale’s 42.7 per cent – casts a pall over what had been shaping up to be a very good night.
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The Liberals managed to hold on to two Liberal strongholds, Toronto Centre and the Montreal riding of Bourassa, despite an all-out effort by the NDP to steal them away.
The Conservatives had no trouble in Provencher, another Tory fortress in Manitoba, but the near miss in Brandon is sure to spook the governing party as it reels from the impact of the Senate expense scandal.
Even in Provencher, the Conservative share of the vote dropped significantly, to about 58 per cent from 71 per cent in the 2011 election.
The results are sure to disappoint the NDP, which poured all its resources behind star candidates in Bourassa and Toronto Centre: lawyer and one-time pop singer Stephane Moraille and well-known journalist and author Linda McQuaig, respectively.
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