Politics·PODCAST

The Pollcast: Reading the byelection tea leaves

On the latest episode of The Pollcast, the CBC's John Paul Tasker and Hannah Thibedeau return to dissect the results of Monday's three federal byelections.

CBC's John Paul Tasker and Hannah Thibedeau on the results of Monday's 3 contests

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh prevailed in Monday's Burnaby South byelection. His party lost the Quebec seat of Outremont to the Liberals, while the Conservatives held York–Simcoe in Ontario. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

Silver linings abounded in Monday's three federal byelections, with each of the major parties — and even the minor ones — having something to celebrate in the results.

The New Democrats secured a seat for their leader, Jagmeet Singh. The Liberals stole a riding away from the NDP in Quebec and the Conservatives increased their support in a GTA stronghold. The Greens and the People's Party each hit double digits in one of the three contests as well.

That's the good news. But there was bad news, too.

Both the Liberals and Conservatives saw their support slip in two out of three byelections. The NDP lost Outremont, the scene of the party's first breakthrough into Quebec in 2007 that foreshadowed the Orange Wave of 2011. And where the Greens and Maxime Bernier's party didn't hit double digits, they weren't a factor whatsoever.

So what to make of the glass-half-full, glass-half-empty results?

To dissect the results, the CBC's John Paul Tasker and Hannah Thibedeau return with host and CBC polls analyst Éric Grenier on this week's episode of the Pollcast podcast.

Listen to the full discussion above — or subscribe to the CBC Pollcast and listen to past episodes of the show.