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Opposition leader Steven Marshall says it is too early to call the result of South Australia's Fisher by-election, but admits the count has so far been disappointing for the Liberals.

The counting of votes is continuing on Monday with Labor's Nat Cook ahead of Liberal Heidi Harris 51.4 per cent to 48.6 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.

The Liberals had been expected to win the seat, but Mr Marshall said on Monday the party always knew it was going to be a "complex by-election".

He said the party faced an anxious wait while the pre-poll and postal votes were counted, and the results may not be known for days.

Premier Jay Weatherill said the swing to Labor showed voter dissatisfaction with broken federal coalition promises as well as with the "pathetically weak" reaction to them from the SA opposition.

Senior Liberals admitted Defence Minister David Johnston's insult about not trusting SA-based shipbuilder ASC "to build a canoe" played a large part.

Federal MP Andrew Southcott said national issues played a part in the votes, while Assistant Infrastructure Minister Jamie Briggs said the canoe comment was "very, very unhelpful".

"People, I think rightly, expect us to be empathetic and that comment was not that," he said.

Bob Such, who won Fisher from Labor in 1989, served as a Liberal MP for 10 years before becoming an independent in 2000.

He was diagnosed with a brain tumour a week after the 2014 state election and died in October.

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Tense wait for SA Libs in by-election

Obama And Liberals Are Happy Eric Garner Is Dead
Obama And Liberals Are Happy Eric Garner Is Dead NEW COMEDY STATION http://www.youtube.com/user/DrofCommonSense?feature=watch Join The Talk Show Every Wednesday ...

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Obama And Liberals Are Happy Eric Garner Is Dead - Video

Reaction to the grand jury decision in Ferguson, Mo., not to indict police officer Darren Wilson largely divided Americans along racial and political lines, ripping open a chasm between conservatives many of whom supported Mr. Wilson's testimony and the decision and liberals, who saw the incident as an example of police brutality and racial injustice.

In the case of Eric Garner, reaction has been immediate and almost unanimous across the political spectrum.

In July, Mr. Garner, an unarmed black man, was confronted by several New York City police officers who suspected him of illegally selling individual cigarettes outside of a store in Staten Island. One police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, put Garner in a fatal chokehold when he resisted arrest. The incident was captured on video. Agrand jury decided on Wednesday to not indict Pantaleo.

Reaction was swift, and unlike in the case in Ferguson, many on the political right and left united to condemn the grand jury decision, a rare event in an age of acute polarization.

The cover of the conservative New York Post says: "IT WAS NOT A CRIME," written in big, bold letters, accompanied by still frames of Pantaleo putting Garner in a chokehold.

Fox News syndicated columnist and contributor Charles Krauthammer called the grand jurys decision "totally incomprehensible."

"I think anybody who looks at the video would think this was the wrong judgment," Krauthammer said.

"It defies reason. It makes no sense,"wrote Sean Davis at the Federalist. "Just going on the plain language of the law, the police officer who killed Garner certainly appears to be guilty of second-degree manslaughter at the very least ... All we have to do is watch the video and believe our own eyes."

Leon Wolf of the conservative blog Redstate wrote, "This decision is really and truly baffling to me, and infuriating besides."

Conservative commentator Erick Erickson endorsed this statement from the conservative Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. "[A] government that can choke a man to death on video for selling cigarettes is not a government living up to a biblical definition of justice or any recognizable definition of justice."

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Why conservatives and liberals are united on Eric Garner case (+video)

The National Assembly wrapped up a fall session chalk full of cutbacks, reorganizations and protests Friday, and though the Liberals are defending their decisions, the opposition says the government doesn't have a mandate to impose so many cuts.

Premier Philippe Couillard admits he broke an election promise by raising daycare fees, but to do otherwise would have jeopardized the daycare program, he said.

Obviously the decision regarding daycares has been difficult but it had to be made, he said.

Making sure Quebecs prized social programs stick around for the long term is behind decisions to reform pensions and make municipal employees pay more, reorganizing the health care system and making doctors work more.

Couillard says he's slashing $2 billion in government spending for future Quebecers.

They're going to be free to decide, free to grow, free to create jobs and have families and live happy lives, he said.

But Parti Quebecois Leader Stephane Bedard says the Liberals didn't talk about such austerity in the election.

"It's amazing that (the premier) said one thing and did the exact opposite," Bedard told a news conference in Quebec City.

Francois Legault, leader of the Coalition Avenir Quebec, told Quebecers not to believe Couillard's promise to cut taxes after fiscal 2016.

"Couillard said he wouldn't increase daycare fees (during the campaign) and he did," Legault said. "What is his word worth?"

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Liberals end fall session defending their thrifty ways

Barry Wilson, Executive producer, CTV Montreal Published Friday, December 5, 2014 2:01PM EST

Have drivers become the new smokers? Back in the day, whenever the government needed to squeeze people a little more, they went for the puffers or sometimes, the drinkers.

Now, if you drive in Quebec the government looks at you and sees dollar signs.

We are taxed on our insurance our licences and our gas. There are special taxes to pay for public transportation. There are extra taxes if you live on the island of Montreal and if you ride a motorcycle then see your bank manager. Gas falls to below a buck in many places in Canada, but not here.

In this week's so-called mini-budget, the government decided to go to the well again with another hit on drivers with higher gas taxes and insurance premiums. Then the finance minister in his best "cat that ate the canary face" denied Quebecers would be paying more in taxes.

Well there's about half a dozen measures that will cost you and I more, regardless of what they are called. In fact, one study says an average Quebec family will be paying an extra $1,300 in 2015 in non-taxes, and this is just the beginning wait until the real budget in the spring.

Now I'm all in favour of bringing some sanity to public finances in Quebec, but can the government please be honest and take a serious look at the real problem the huge over bloated Quebec bureaucracy and our nanny state obsession? It seems everyone praises the Quebec model, but no one follows it.

Peladeau throws his hat into the ring

So PKP is officially in the hunt for arguably the worst job in Canadian politics leader of the Parti Quebecois.

The MNA for Quebecor had his campaign launch this week, where once again he pledged to remove Quebec from those awful Canadian shackles. He actually had the nerve to say Quebec is not free.

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Postscript: Liberals should tackle the real issues