Conservatives win big in Canada by-elections

Canada's Conservatives strengthened their shaky grip on power Tuesday after unexpectedly winning two of four by-elections, thrashing separatists in Quebec and winning back a lost Tory stronghold in Nova Scotia.

The Monday by-election results defied polling and a dour economy, which normally would have hampered the ruling party's electoral fortunes.

Election Canada released the preliminary vote results Tuesday morning.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives now hold 145 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons, versus 77 for the main opposition Liberals, 48 for the separatist Bloc Quebecois, 37 for the leftist New Democratic Party and one independent.

In the electoral district Montmagny-L'Islet-Kamouraska-Riviere-du-Loup in Quebec, a once popular mayor turned Conservative candidate beat his Bloc Quebecois rival by 1,400 or five percent of votes.

The seat had been held by the Bloc since 1993.

Pundits described the Tory win there as a "game changer" as it showed the western Canada-based Conservatives have stronger support in Quebec than anyone knew.

It shows that the Bloc Quebecois "only represents a narrow view of Quebecers' values," Harper's spokesman Dimitri Soudas told AFP.

The Bloc, however, hung onto a Montreal area seat by winning more votes than all of its challengers combined.

In easternmost Nova Scotia province, the Conservatives reclaimed a seat they had lost in 2007 due to caucus infighting.

The New Democrats, meanwhile, touted a win in New Westminster-Coquitlam in westernmost British Columbia province -- and second-place finishes in Nova Scotia and Montreal -- as evidence of their momentum while the Liberals stagnate.

Soudas suggested the by-elections were "a failure" for rookie Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, who had threatened to topple Harper's minority government in September, but has since then softened his position.

Liberal spokesman Daniel Lauzon however said the four electoral districts have not been held by members of his party for 30 to 50 years.

"It?s a mistake to assume that they are representative of some sort of national trend," he told AFP.