It shouldn't be news that the Conservatives have won a federal byelection in Calgary Centre - but Joan Crockatt made this one interesting.
In a night of byelection drama, Crockatt squeaked out a win in the riding right next to that of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in what should be a Tory fortress.
The Conservatives also won the Ontario riding of Durham, with Erin O'Toole easily retaining the seat vacated by former cabinet minister Bev Oda.
And in Victoria, New Democrat Murray Rankin and Donald Galloway of the Greens were still slugging it out late Monday in a riding that's been solidly NDP since 2004.
But it was Calgary - a city that's seen its share of political drama of late - that attracted all the attention as establishment candidate Crockatt ran neck-and-neck with Liberal challenger Harvey Locke for most of the evening, eventually edging ahead for a margin of just over a thousand votes.
The former journalist wound up winning with about 37 per cent of the popular vote, the lowest for an MP-elect in Calgary Centre since the riding was created in 1968.
Running in a bedrock small-c conservative seat, Crockatt ran a safe, low-key campaign, that had the Liberal and Green contenders nipping at her Conservative heels.
Byelections tend to be hard on sitting governments, but Calgary Centre wasn't supposed to be a problem for the Harper Conservatives.
The riding hadn't seen a three-way race since Reformers and Progressive Conservatives were fighting for the right to roast a Liberal in the early 1990s.
The combined conservative vote Calgary Centre hadn't fallen below 50 per cent since 1972.
But Crockatt's vocal support for the upstart Wild-rose party in the last Alberta election appeared to divide the local conservative base, with some openly defecting to support Locke.
"Calgary is not a redneck city," Locke said late Monday night before tearily hugging his wife and conceding.
Chris Turner of the Greens also ran a strong campaign that may have been aided in the final stretch by Liberal gaffes elsewhere.
First, Liberal MP David McGuinty was quoted calling Alberta MPs "shills" for the oil industry and suggesting they "go home" and run for town council if they want to be so parochial.
Then a November 2010, French-language interview by Justin Trudeau, the Liberal leadership heir apparent, surfaced in which he stated that "sa国际传媒 isn't doing well right now because it's Albertans who control our community and socio-democratic agenda."
Trudeau apologized but not before federal Conservatives had a field day, stalling Liberal momentum in Calgary Centre and making the Green option - and a welcome Liberal-Green vote split for Crockatt - more viable.
It all served to make a routine byelection electric.
The seat was made vacant when veteran MP Lee Richardson resigned to take a post as chief of staff to Alberta Premier Alison Redford.
