OTTAWA—Parliament’s prosecutor-in-chief rose in his customary spot Tuesday afternoon, another day at the office. But it was the guy to his left who was sporting the grin.

Tom Mulcair has a wheelbarrow full of positive press clippings. Justin Trudeau is collecting votes.

NDP leader Mulcair has deserved the praise he has received for his work in the House of Commons, poking holes in Stephen Harper’s wobbly narrative on the ongoing PMO-Senate scandal.

Liberal leader Trudeau has deserved the criticism for appearing over his head in the Commons, but he deserves credit for getting out of there and letting Mulcair do the heavy lifting.

The results of the four byelections in this country Monday show Trudeau in the ascendancy, with the NDP leader still searching for that elusive “traction” with voters, a search that has intensified since Trudeau took the Liberal helm.

Mulcair has a sharp, disciplined message in the Commons and an aggressive Senate abolition platform, but since he assumed the leadership of the party, there hasn’t been a night of balloting anywhere in this country that would spur anyone to buy a round for the house down at Brixton’s, the party’s favoured Sparks Street watering hole.

To add an exclamation point to his night, Trudeau gracelessly appropriated a deathbed line from the late Jack Layton, proclaiming “it is the Liberal party tonight that proved hope is stronger than fear.’’

It is a line that will be long remembered should these two parties ever try to forge a détente.

One NDP official called it “disgusting.’’ Mulcair said the fact Trudeau would use Layton’s dying words as a political tool “says everything that needs to be said about Justin Trudeau’s judgment and character.’’

Regardless of the bad blood, since the 2011 election the NDP has lost three MPs (two of them under Mulcair’s watch) — one to the Liberals, one to the Bloc and one now sitting as an independent.

The party lost power in Nova Scotia, is facing caucus defections and a messy leadership battle in Newfoundland, and fumbled what should have been a victory in British Columbia.

Its one comfortable victory, in Manitoba, came before Mulcair was chosen leader.

The party easily held Layton’s old Toronto—Danforth riding in a byelection, but again that was before Mulcair was chosen leader.

Under Mulcair’s leadership, the party held Victoria, but with a drop in support of more than 13 points.

It all but dropped off the map in the 2012 Calgary Centre byelection, although it grew its vote in Durham the same night.

Monday night, Linda McQuaig’s strong performance in Toronto Centre was the party’s firewall, but in the first test of the Orange Wave in Quebec, Liberals improved in Bourassa under Trudeau, even though it had been thought that much of the party success in the riding was a product of the popularity of Denis Coderre, now Montreal mayor.

The NDP fell precipitously in the two Manitoba ridings of Provencher and Brandon-Souris. Both were held by the Conservatives, but the Liberals leapfrogged the NDP as the alternative to the government.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Since assuming the federal leadership, Trudeau took back Labrador from the Conservatives, held his two urban ridings in Toronto and Montreal and grew his party’s vote in all four ridings Monday night.

No one has ever uttered the phrase “As goes Brandon, so goes the nation,’’ but for this day at least it is the numbers in Brandon—Souris that deserve a day in the spotlight.

The riding has been Conservative for all but four of the last 60 years. But Conservatives had a near-death experience Monday when the Liberal vote jumped from five per cent to almost 43 per cent. The NDP tumbled from 25 per cent to seven per cent and the party that was seeking to build on its second-place 2011 finishes, found itself a feeble third in both Manitoba ridings.

This, as the Harper government is badly weakened by the Senate scandal, the thuggish PMO response and inept damage control.

Instead of turning to the official Opposition, Manitoba voters turned to Trudeau.

Yes, they were only byelections and these were reliable Conservative and Liberal ridings, as Mulcair pointed out.

But stealing a previously safe seat can sometimes lead to great things.

Just ask the man who provided a toehold for the NDP in Quebec by winning Outremont in a 2007 byelection, an upset that ultimately led to the party’s 2011 breakthrough.

The winner, a guy named Mulcair, had a different message about byelections that night.

Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. tharper@thestar.ca Twitter:@nutgraf1

Read more about: