A tenuous situation for the Liberals gave way to calamity overnight as the last votes were counted in the Toronto—St. Paul’s byelection. The final tally, reported at 4:44 AM ET, showed that Conservative candidate Don Stewart had beat Liberal Leslie Church by a margin of 590 votes.

Liberal insiders who went to bed thinking that the party had held the longtime stronghold were no doubt thrown into a panic when they checked their phones early Tuesday morning.