Liberals sweep byelections in Ontario, Quebec and B.C.

In Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, a riding previously held by the Conservatives, Liberal candidate Daniel Gobeil defeated his rivals as the Conservatives slipped to third place behind the Bloc Québécois.

In Toronto, Liberal candidate Tanveer Shahnawaz won Beaches-East York handily, while in British Columbia, former Carney aide Braeden Caley captured North Vancouver-Capilano.

Monday’s races were among three byelections Carney set for Aug. 31.

Although called in July, the contests were overshadowed by the recent collapse in trade talks between Canada and the United States, prompting some political observers to question whether the prime minister’s decision to walk away from negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump would boost Liberal support.

That was especially true in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, a riding north of Quebec City that is home to major aluminum and dairy industries, two sectors on the front lines of the trade turmoil.

Running for the Liberals was Daniel Gobeil, a dairy farmer who previously chaired Les Producteurs de lait du Québec. Lawyer Régis Gaudreault was the Conservative candidate, while former political staffer Caroline Dubé ran for the Bloc Québécois.

Speaking to supporters, Gobeil said Monday’s win sent a strong message and that he would be a champion for the supply management system.

With Canada-U.S. trade top of mind for many voters, the riding’s largely francophone population placed it squarely in Bloc Québécois territory, pitting the party’s appeal on cultural and sovereignty issues against the Liberals’ efforts under Carney as the defender-in-chief of Quebec’s industries and identity against Trump. 

Successive polls suggested a majority of Canadians approved of Carney’s government, and his handling of Trump and the broader Canada-U.S. trade relationship remained defining issues more than a year after he was elected under similar circumstances.

While the Liberals entered Monday’s byelections hoping to convert that support into more seats, the Conservatives were trying to hold their ground, while the NDP, with just five seats in Parliament, looked for any opportunity to make gains.

But shortly after polls closed, the Conservatives took to social media to thank all three of their candidates on Monday. 

In Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, which the Conservatives won in last year’s election in a tight three-way race, the party had fallen to a distant third place.

According to Elections Canada results updated just before midnight, with 211 of 212 polls reporting, the Liberals were leading with just over 51 per cent of the vote, followed by the Bloc at nearly 33 per cent and the Conservatives at around 12 per cent.

While the seat was never considered a shoo-in for the Conservatives, its loss nonetheless delivers unwelcome news for Poilievre, who faces internal pressure over whether he can reverse the party’s fortunes after months of trailing Carney in public opinion polls.

Richard Martel, the riding’s former MP, held the seat from winning a 2018 byelection until last month, when he accepted a Senate appointment.

Martel’s 2018 win marked the first time the seat had swung to the current Conservative Party, with the last time it won under a conservative banner during the late 1990s when it was held by the erstwhile Progressive Conservatives. 

All major federal parties, including the New Democrats, have at one point over the past two decades represented the riding. Much of the Conservatives’ success in holding the seat was attributed to Martel’s profile as a major junior hockey coach before entering politics.

Martel successfully retained the riding three times for the Conservatives, including in last year’s election, when he narrowly defeated the second-place Bloc candidate in a tight three-way race. He won by about 1,500 votes, with the Liberal candidate not far behind in third place.

The next contest Conservatives will be watching closely is Brantford-Brant South-Six Nations, a long-held Conservative seat in southwestern Ontario.

With Larry Brock resigning from the seat on Sept. 18, Conservatives will be looking to hold it against the Liberals at a time when the party remains buoyed by Carney’s popularity.

As for Monday’s byelection in Toronto, the federal seat in Beaches-East York was vacated after longtime Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith resigned to run for a seat on Toronto city council. 

Shahnawaz, a former member of Erskine-Smith’s constituency staff, will now enter Parliament as the Liberal stronghold’s newest MP.

“It’s a great time to be a Liberal in Canada and in Beaches-East York,” Shahnawaz told the crowd. 

Union organizer Shannon Devine was running for the New Democrats. A key issue in the race: The proposed expansion of the Billy Bishop Airport, which the Liberals rejected in the days before Carney called the contest. 

In that riding, the NDP did cross into the double-digit vote percentage threshold as compared to the 2025 election, when its vote largely collapsed into the Liberals’. 

Meanwhile in B.C., the Liberals kept their seat in North Vancouver—Capilano, previously held by former Liberal MP and Trudeau-era cabinet minister Jonathan Wilkinson. He left it to accept an appointment as Canada’s envoy to the European Union. 

Just before midnight, Elections Canada was reporting the Liberals leading by nearly 58 per cent of the vote, with 120 of 204 polls reporting.

Caley ran for the Liberals against lawyer Stephen Curran, the Conservative candidate, who conceded. 

Throughout the campaign, Curran highlighted how Caley was not from the riding, unlike himself.

The byelection also marked the first time voters in B.C. could cast a ballot after the Carney government entered into an agreement with Alberta to advance a new oil pipeline to the West Coast, while also promising to spend billions on new port and other infrastructure upgrades in B.C  

After Monday six more byelections still must be called to fill seats vacated in the House of Commons through retirements and resignations, including by MPs now running in Quebec’s provincial election.

-With files from Ryan Tumilty