Vaughn Palmer: Expectations high for NDP in this week's byelection

VICTORIA — From the outset of the Nanaimo byelection, Premier John Horgan was clear about the stakes for himself and his NDP government.
“It is pivotal, it is critical, that we succeed,” he declared at the Jan. 5 opening of the campaign office for NDP candidate Sheila Malcolmson. “We need to win Nanaimo to continue the government. It’s that simple.”
Maybe not quite that simple.
If the New Democrats were to lose Nanaimo to the B.C. Liberals on Wednesd