Byelections: Trinity-Spadina faceoff fizzles as Liberals cruise to victory

The electoral turf war in TrinitySpadina was billed as a byelection battle for the ages.

But when itfinally came time to count the ballots in the ridingvacated by former New Democrat MP turned mayoral candidate Olivia Chow, itwasn't even close.

• Liberals win Toronto ridings, Conservatives hold Alberta in byelections
• Alberta: Conservatives hold, but Liberals gain support
• Toronto: Liberals take NDP seat, hold their own
• Read a recap of our live blog

After only two polls in,Toronto city councillor turned LiberalchallengerAdam Vaughan tookthelead overNDPheir apparentJoe Cressy, and never looked back.

By the end of the night, Vaughan's share of the vote seemed to have settled at just over 50 per centnearly 20 percentage points ahead of Cressyand when hefinally took the stage at his victory celebrations, a visibly delighted Justin Trudeau was on hand to congratulate him.

There were still moreeuphoricLiberal faces in the crowd at his soon-to-be-caucus colleague Arnold Chan's victory party in ScarboroughAgincourt.

After all, Chan didn't just hang onto the seatthat maverick formerMP Jim Karygiannis held for decades.

Hevery nearly doubled Karygiannis' 2011 margin of victory, although given thedownright moribund turnout across the board, it's likely unwise to drawanysweeping conclusions based on data-crunching comparisons alone.

Closest race in Fort McMurray

Still, it seems noteworthy that the closest race turned out to be the fight for Fort McMurrayAthabasca, a riding traditionallyviewed as near theheart of the Tory heartland, nestled deep in oilsands country.

In 2011, voters sent Conservative MP Brian Jean back to Ottawa with just over 70 per cent of the vote, with the New Democrat and Liberal candidates coming in a distant second and third, respectively, with 13 and 10 per cent, respectively.

This time around, Conservative standard-bearer David Yurdiga, won with just under 47 per cent of the vote. Hotor, at least, warmon hisheels,however, wasLiberal Kyle Harrietha, who wound up a not nearly so distant second at just under 36 per cent. The New Democrats, meanwhile, dropped to 11 per cent.

As was the case in Ontario, the lacklustre turnout makes it difficult to say for sure whether the unexpectedly feisty performance at the polls by the Liberals was a one-off anomaly, or a portent of campaigns to come.

Meanwhile, any Conservatives rattled by a seeming resurgence of red in Alberta canfindsolacein the numbersfrom Macleod, where John Barlow cruised to victory with nearly 70 per cent support.

Even so, the Liberals cantake heart in their 17 per cent showing, which is a 13 percentage point jump from 2011, when they pulled in less than 4 per cent of the total vote.

And atthe very least,both the Conservatives and Liberals can comfort themselves with the fact that they aren't the New Democrats,for whom this latest batch of byelectionscan best be described as a series ofunfortunate events.

Not only did they give up Trinity-Spadina, but they didn't even place second in any of the other three ridings up for grabs. (In Macleod, they came in fourth, behind the Greens.)

For a party that has billed itself as the only seriouschoice for opponents of the current government,it will be hard to spin thoseresults as anything otherthana disappointment one that could very well demoralize the party even as it emboldens Team Trudeau.

By that reckoning, the New Democrats may have lost more than just a seat in the House of Commons on Monday night. They may have lost albeit maybe only temporarily their footing on the road to 2015.

Mobile users, view a chart of byelection results since 2006 here.