After a five week, $300-million plus cross-country campaign, Hamilton voters opted to stand pat with exactly the same candidates they elected in 2006.

That means we're not sending any fresh faces to Ottawa and all five incumbents will keep collecting their $154,000-a-year salaries.

The New Democrats once again control the city's three inner-city ridings .

The Conservatives once again retain their grip on the two largely suburban ridings.

And once again, the results are absolutely devastating for local Liberals.

Despite high hopes and some strong candidates, the Grits, who held all five city seats during the Chretien years, were completely shut out, as they were in the 2006 election.

But last night's failure to connect with voters was, arguably, an even more serious blow than the '06 housecleaning.

Being obliterated once can be explained away as an aberration.

A second wholesale rejection suggests something much more serious may be happening-- an emerging pattern of Hamilton as a chronically Liberal-free zone federally.

Nobody was expecting anything remotely like a Liberal sweep, of course. More...