Julian Fantino has wasted little time in pushing the Conservatives' law-and-order agenda, after the former Ontario Provincial Police commissioner won a byelection in a longtime Liberal stronghold.
"I believe there is far too much tolerance and wimping out on crime issues," Fantino told CTV's Power Play Tuesday. "Some people are saying we should be comforted because the crime rates are down a percentage or two, but I am not comforted at all.
"Any victim is one victim too many. Any crime is one crime too many for which a law-abiding society should not have any tolerance whatsoever."
Fantino was elected to the Tory caucus in Vaughan, Ont., just north of Toronto. He has been touted as a surefire cabinet minister in the Harper government, but he said he was willing to do whatever the prime minister wants him to do.
While Fantino's high-profile win had the government crowing, the Liberals were also declaring victory Tuesday. The party took a seat away from the NDP in Manitoba, and the race with Fantino was extremely close.
Buoyed by the narrow margin of the loss to Fantino, and the surprise victory of Liberal candidate Kevin Lamoureux in Winnipeg North, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff stood behind his party's showing at the polls.
"Everybody expected that in Vaughan it was be a royal procession and it was a coronation," Ignatieff told reporters on Parliament Hill Tuesday, characterizing pre-election expectations for Tory ‘star candidate' Fantino.
"In fact, it was a dog fight," Ignatieff explained, adding that he remains "very confident we can take that seat back in the next election."
Tory response
Responding to the byelection results on Tuesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was "buoyed" by Conservative wins in Ontario and Manitoba.
The vote, Harper said, signalled Canadians' approval of his steady focus on job creation and crime.
"Last night, voters in the federal by-elections chose to endorse our government's actions on these fronts by sending two new Conservative MPs to be their champions in Ottawa," the prime minister said in a statement.
"Though it is rare for a governing party to win by-elections, we are buoyed by the fact that the Conservative Caucus in the House of Commons has increased."
Speaking to reporters, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney suggested that Fantino's Toronto-area victory signals a shift in his party's prospects in the historically Liberal stronghold.
"We see enormous growth in Vaughan which we believe bodes for our general electoral chances," Kenney said, suggesting the result shows the growing support for his party among the new Canadians who dominate the area.
From his perspective, however, Ignatieff said the byelection result maps a very different route to the next general election.
"What we're seeing, I think, is the next election is shaping up as a clear two-way choice between the Liberals and the Conservatives," Ignatieff said.
"It will be a societal choice, a choice for the future of Canada," Ignatieff said, noting he has learned at least one important lesson.
Liberals, he said, must "roll up our sleeves, we've got more work to do."
Lamoureux won with 46 per cent of the vote, compared to the NDP's 41. Although his margin of victory amounted to approximately 800 votes, the result was a dramatic turnaround from 2008, when the Liberals ran a distant third.
NDP MP Don Davies said Lamoureux was an experienced politician running against a first-time NDP candidate and said "anything can happen" when in seat is open in a byelection.
He inferred the byelections do not say much about the political winds in the country.
"I'm not sure you can draw any conclusions from it, other than you've got three very different results," he told CTV's Power Play.
As expected, Robert Sopuck easily held onto the Manitoba riding of Dauphin--Swan River--Marquette for the Tories, who've held the seat there for 13 years. He won with about 57 per cent of the vote, compared to 26 per cent for the NDP and 10 per cent for the Liberals.
Commenting on the Liberal showing in Manitoba, Kenney said it shows, "They have completely abandoned rural Canada, and rural Canada has responded in kind."
Voter turnout in all three byelections was lacklustre, ranging from a low of 26 per cent in Dauphin to a high of 31 per cent in Vaughan.
With files from The Canadian Press
