Byelection Monday

First of all, I'm somewhat disappointed in myself that I couldn't think up a witty St. Patrick's day themed post title related to tomorrow's byelections.

Regardless, after the Outremont disaster in the fall, people will be playing close attention to these four byelections. The common media consensus is that the Liberals will coast to easy wins in the two Toronto seats and in BC - but, at the same time, I've been hearing rumblings that the Liberals might be in trouble in both Quadra and Willowdale. Losing either of those would certainly be a body blow on par with Outremont - maybe even bigger if you consider the previous margins of victory and the strong candidates the Liberals are running. On the flip side, if they can go four for four and get Joan Beatty in, there will be a massive infusion of talent into the Liberal front benches of the House of Commons.

While the focus in the media is sure to be on the Liberals, it will also be interesting to see how the other parties fare. The Conservatives shot themselves in Toronto Centre with the Marc Warner fiasco, but Willowdale will be a good test to see if a potential GTA breakthrough is on the horizon. For the NDP and greens, they aren't in the hunt to win, but by focusing their volunteers on the byelection ridings, they'll be hoping to see a rise in popular vote.

So check back in here tomorrow night for the results.

The Quadra Equation

Given what happened in the Quebec by-elections, one imagines people will be paying close attention to round two, expected this fall. One of those by-elections will be in Vancouver Quadra, Stephen Owen's old riding and a Liberal riding since a man by the name of Turner won it in 1984.

The Tories held their nomination meeting in Quadra last night and a funny thing happened. The hand picked candidate of John Reynolds, Mary McNeil went down in defeat. Reynolds had been touting the BC Cancer Foundation Chairman as a "star" all summer and had invested a lot of political capital to get her to run. And for those keeping track, this is not the first star recruit of Reynolds to go down in flames during a nominating meeting...so one imagines big names will think twice about being lured onside in the foreseeable future.

As for Quadra, the Tories will be puting up UBC professor Deborah Meredith, while the Liberals will put up former provincial Environment Minister Joyce Murray. The likely bronze medalist will be Rebecca Coad, of the NDP.