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Trudeau-mania absent during yesterday’s federal byelections

Any sign of Trudeau-mania went MIA during Monday's federal by-elections in Victoria, Calgary Centre and Durham.

For months we've the heard the media and pollsters tell us that Justin Trudeau's leadership bid was sweeping the nation. One poll even suggested that a Trudeau-led Liberal party could form a strong-minority government after the next general election.

But, as right leaning politicos are appropriately reporting today, hopes for a Trudeau boost turned into an epic bust on Monday.

Here is a Facebook post by Tory MP Dean Del Mastro:

"Lost in the press coverage of last nights by-elections was the 4th place finish by the Liberal party in average vote support, 2% behind the Green party. Given that Justin Trudeau personally visited and campaigned in all three ridings, one has to wonder what the press circus has been all about over the recent months. The Liberal party average support last night was 19.9%."

Del Mastro's math does add up (according to Yahoo! Canada News' mathematicians). The Greens did edge out the Liberals in terms of total votes on the night: 21,844 to 20,013.

[ Related: Don't read too much into the results in Victoria, Calgary Centre and Durham ]

Right leaning political analyst Gerry Nicholls calls it a "failure of Trudeau-mania"

"Recall, how the media keeps telling us that Liberal leadership candidate Justin Trudeau is a new breed of politician, whose idealism, charisma and charm will energize vast throngs of apathetic Canadians into obedient Liberal-voting legions," he wrote in a blog for his website.

"Yet we didn't see much evidence of Trudeau's divine magic on by-election night.

"And voter turnout was low — less than 30 percent of eligible voters in [Calgary Centre] cast ballots. And so the highly vaunted Trudeau-mania didn't excite voters enough to get them to vote Liberal in sufficient quantities nor did it even get them off the couch!"

Moreover, according to Alberta Premier Alison Redford, Trudeau may have actually done more damage than good in Calgary Centre.

In an interview with the Canadian Press, Redford noted that Trudeau's two year old comments, which surfaced last week, — where he said 'Canada is in trouble because Albertans are in power'— probably had an impact on the tight by-election race.

So much for Trudeau-mania?

[ Related: The 'horrible' week that was for the Liberal Party ]

Maybe the Liberals need to learn the lesson — again — that there's no such thing as a political messiah.