Apolitical Staples

I alluded to the next round of by-elections the other day and I made the assumption that the Liberals would retain their seats in Vancouver Quadra, Toronto Centre and Willowdale and lose the seat in Northern Saskatchewan. Apparently I was getting the cart before the horse as the Dionista nominated in Vancouver Quadra could be in for a tough fight against the Conservative candidate.

...Murray, who worked with key Liberal strategist Mark Marissen on Stephane Dion's leadership campaign, should be very, very worried about the arrival of the well-respected McNeil on the scene.
The latter may be a rookie, but she has extensive connections and retail chops as a fundraiser through her work with the cancer foundation.
Murray had a shaky record as Campbell's environment minister, and has only one electoral win to her credit, the 2001 provincial race in New Westminster.
The one-termer was turfed from the provincial legislature in 2005 by the NDP's Chuck Puchmayr.
Federal Liberals then chose Murray to run in New Westminster-Burnaby, where she was thoroughly trounced in 2006, placing third behind NDP winner Dawn Black and lacklustre Conservative incumbent Paul Forseth.

Obviously it way too early to be thinking about this but if the Liberals lose two of their four seats in the next round of by-elections, with one of them being in an urban riding, then the negative momentum resulting from Outremont will only increase.