Byelection results signal shift in Ottawa

Huge turnover of legislative experience

OTTAWA • Monday’s byelection results mean more than just fresh faces for the House of Commons: one observer says they represent a generational shift on Parliament Hill.

The five new Ottawabound MPs — two Conservatives and three Liberals — replace a group of politicians with a profound depth of experience, including four former cabinet ministers and a former prime minister.

It is rare to see such a dramatic turnover of legislative experience, Duane Bratt, a political science professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said Tuesday.

The change illustrates shifts in political Ottawa and a degree of evolution taking place inside both the Liberal and Conservative camps, Bratt added, noting it is an opportunity to bring in some new blood.

“That’s the more interesting element than the actual result,” he said in an interview. “They’re going to have some time to get their feet wet.”

Monday’s byelections — two in Alberta, two in Ontario and one in Quebec — contained no surprises and did not change the seat counts in the House of Commons.

“The takeaway is they were all relatively safe seats and they were retained by their parties,” said Carleton University political science professor Jonathan Malloy.

“Byelections can sometimes be good bellwethers for political trends, but in this case we had four quite high-profile people retire from politics with all relatively safe seats and the death of one MP in one of the safest Liberal seats of all (Ottawa-Vanier.)”

The new MPs are Calgary small-business owner Bob Benzen, former diplomat Stephanie Kusie, former political staffer Mary Ng, teacher Emmanuella Lambropoulos, and Ottawabased business person Mona Fortier.

Toronto-area ridings such as Ng’s Markham-Thornhill could be interesting battlegrounds between the Liberals and the Conservatives in the next election, said University of Ottawa political science professor Pierre Martel, but he said a lot of uncertainty exists now for the Tories due to the lack of a permanent leader.

The electorate likely preferred to support a “known quantity” — the Liberals — in that riding during the byelection, he said.

The riding was previously represented by veteran Liberal cabinet minister John McCallum, who was appointed ambassador to China Feb. 1. There was criticism from Liberal hopefuls however, who questioned the fairness of Ng’s nomination.