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Toronto is fortress Liberal no more
Trudeau and Freeland’s class war rhetoric fails as middle-income riding goes Conservative
A tenuous situation for the Liberals gave way to calamity overnight as the last votes were counted in the Toronto—St. Paul’s byelection. The final tally, reported at 4:44 AM ET, showed that Conservative candidate Don Stewart had beat Liberal Leslie Church by a margin of 590 votes.
Liberal insiders who went to bed thinking that the party had held the longtime stronghold were no doubt thrown into a panic when they checked their phones early Tuesday morning.
In any event, it is deeply embarrassing for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland — the Edmonton Oilers were the reigning Stanley Cup champions the last time a Conservative won in St. Paul’s. Particularly as the byelection disaster is a direct indictment of both Freeland’s latest tax-and-spend budget and Trudeau’s fair-weather friendship toward Israel.
Above all, a loss in the middle income inner-Toronto riding is a repudiation of both the redistributive tax measures announced in the budget and the class warfare rhetoric that Freeland has used to sell the tax hikes.
See Also:
Byelection calamity for Trudeau as Conservatives scoop Liberal stronghold in Toronto
God save Canada, because the Liberals won’t
Trudeau’s lack of support for the Jewish community is a purely political calculation
Conservatives’ shock win in Toronto-St. Paul’s adds pressure to Trudeau to step down