Feels good to be run over by a steam-roller

For a guy who just got run over by a steam-roller, the Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry Liberal candidate – somebody whom 99.1% of voters had never heard of three weeks ago

The Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry Liberal candidate – somebody whom 99.1 per cent of voters had never heard of three weeks ago – had a strange take on the excruciating experience.

“Feels good,” said Devon Monkhouse, a token candidate if ever there was one, while he was gushing about how proud he was to be part of Team Bonnie, and that he was happy with the overall results.

Of course, nobody in the Liberal camp expected the candidate to beat Nolan Quinn, or even come close.

As expected, Team Ford flag-bearer Quinn coasted, and that is being charitable, to victory gathering up 62 per cent of the SDSG vote, while the Liberals and NDP candidate Jeremy Rose, who did have a strong Cornwall riding connection, fought it out for second place.

Monkhouse was parachuted into the riding after the “head hunters” beat the bushes for a local sacrificial lamb with no success. Responses were along the line of, “Sorry, I’m busy that day.”

These are challenging (a.k.a. desperate) times for the local Libs. There was a day, not that long ago, when local prospects lined up for the nomination.

A defining moment, as they say, was when Guy Lauzon crushed super star Liberal candidate Bernadette Clement in 2011 and 2015. The writing was on the wall.

It wasn’t a great night for Monkhouse, and Team Bonnie. It was reported that he was doing double duty as a campaign manager for a Liberal candidate in a Toronto area riding who finished a distant third.

Bonnie Crombie lost her seat but vows to stay on. (That isn’t her call).

Fact that Liberals, who last ruled under a disaster called Kathleen Wynne (who succeeded McFibber), managed to nail down official party status is a poor consolation prize.

Bottom line is that they got smoked by Dougie Dollar and Co. who outflanked them by playing the Trump card.

Meanwhile, Quinn’s massive victory bodes well for the local federal chapter of the local Conservative association. It shows that anyone challenging Eric Duncan and the Big Blue Machine in the expected spring/early summer election faces an uphill battle of Mount Everest proportions.

There’s another local Tory steam-roller warming up in the wings.

Calling for a big Duncan win isn’t exactly crawling out on the proverbial limb.