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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Byelection drama: Tories reclaim Calgary seat
OTTAWA -- It shouldn't be news that the Conservatives have won a federal byelection in Calgary Centre -- but Joan Crockatt made this one interesting.
In a night of byelection drama, Crockatt squeaked out a win in the riding right next to that of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in what should be a Tory fortress.
The Conservatives also won the Ontario riding of Durham, with Erin O'Toole easily reclaiming the seat vacated by former cabinet minister Bev Oda.
And on the Pacific coast, the New Democrat Murray Rankin and Donald Galloway of the Greens were still slugging it out late Monday in Victoria, a riding that's been solidly NDP since 2004.
"This is a lot tighter than we anticipated, for sure," said Victoria-area provincial New Democrat legislator Maurine Karagianis.
"But, this is definitely a vote against Stephen Harper."
She said the NDP believes the strong Green showing is a result of Conservative voters "parking their votes with the Greens."
But it was Calgary -- a city that's seen its share of political drama of late -- that attracted all the attention as establishment candidate Crockatt ran neck-and-neck with Liberal challenger Harvey Locke for most of the evening, eventually edging ahead for a margin of just over a thousand votes.
The former journalist wound up winning with about 37 per cent of the popular vote, the lowest for an MP-elect in Calgary Centre since the riding was created in 1968.
Running in a bedrock small-c conservative seat, Crockatt ran a safe, low-key campaign, that had the Liberal and Green contenders nipping at her Conservative heels.
Byelections tend to be hard on sitting governments, but Calgary Centre wasn't supposed to be a problem for the Harper Conservatives.
The riding hadn't seen a three-way race since Reformers and Progressive Conservatives were fighting for the right to roast a Liberal in the early 1990s. The combined conservative vote Calgary Centre hadn't fallen below 50 per cent since 1972.
But Crockatt's vocal support for the upstart Wildrose party in the last Alberta election appeared to divide the local conservative base, with some openly defecting to support Locke.
"Calgary is not a redneck city," Locke said late Monday night before tearily hugging his wife and conceding.
The one routine byelection of the night took place in central Ontario.
A cheer went up from his Durham supporters when O'Toole hit 50 per cent of the popular vote, leaving NDP candidate Larry O'Connor with 26.8 per cent -- an improvement for the party over 2011, but still far from enough.
-- The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 27, 2012 A9
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