To the shock of smug media commentators across the country, the Manitoba NDP defeated three-term Tory premier Gary Filmon.
Within half an hour of the polls closing, it was clear that the NDP was going to win.
But television "experts" refused to call it an NDP victory for another 45 minutes.
Conventional wisdom sees the space for the NDP disappearing as the electorate moves to the right. Media "experts" could not believe that the NDP was refusing to disappear.
The Manitoba vote showed that there are thousands of working people who are fed up with the market and the parties of business.
Filmon was the longest standing Tory Premier at election time, running for a fourth term. His last term in office was marked by vote rigging scandals, unpopular privatizations, and cutbacks.
Lots of people had lots of reasons to hate him.
Eleven years of Tory rule had put Manitoba in the bottom three provinces for child poverty.
Eleven years of Tory rule saw blatant attempts at vote-rigging in the last election, and allegedly in this one as well.
People wanted to be rid of Filmon and they were. The Tories dropped from 31 seats to 25, while the NDP climbed from 23 to 31 seats. The Liberals fell from 3 seats to 1.
Most impressively, the NDP popular vote increased by a full 10 percent to over 45 percent.
It is excellent that the Tories have been unseated. Working people across the country went to bed with a smile on their face after the defeat of this party of big business.
But people didn't vote for the NDP because it put itself forward as an alternative. Quite the opposite. The NDP did everything in its power to not appear as a real alternative to the Tories.
Even the Toronto Star noted in a post-election editorial: "Doer's New Democrats put forward a more economically conservative platform than Gary Filmon's Conservatives."
Working people in Manitoba voted for the NDP in spite of their program. People hope that their lives will get at least a little better under the NDP.
However, Doer will likely take his election as a sign that people want more Tory-like pro-business policies.
If he does, like the real Tony Blair and his German counterpart Gerhard Schroeder, he will find his base of support will quickly evaporate.
One look at the provinces in either direction -- Ontario and Saskatchewan -- should demonstrate what is likely when that happens.