OTTAWA – Prime Minister Mark Carney has called three consequential byelections, which could be the path to a Liberal majority government if his party can win all three contests.
Carney announced Sunday that byelections in the Toronto ridings of University Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest along with the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne will take place on Monday April 13.
The Liberals were elected in a minority last year, but three Conservative MPs; Matt Jeneroux, Chris d’Entremont and Michael Ma have since crossed the floor. The Liberals previously held all three seats in the coming byelections and if they hold onto them, they will have a one-seat majority.
That narrow majority would likely protect the government from falling in any confidence votes, but because it would rely on the Speaker to break ties, it would not allow them to limit debate or force their agenda through.
Of the three byelections the most hotly contested is expected to be Terrebonne, which Liberal Tatiana Auguste won in last year’s election over Bloc Québécois candidate Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné by a single vote. After two recounts and court challenges, the Supreme Court nullified the election result in mid-February because of concerns about mail-in-ballots that had been improperly addressed.
Both Auguste and Sinclair-Desgagné will be on the ballot again and, given the stakes, the race is likely to get significant attention from Carney and Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet.
The two Toronto ridings are expected to be much less dramatic, as they are both considered safe seats for the Liberals.
University Rosedale was Chrystia Freeland’s riding until she announced her resignation after accepting a position as an economic adviser to the Ukrainian government along with a position as CEO of the Rhodes Trust. Freeland won the riding with 64 per cent of the vote last year and the Liberals have tapped Danielle Martin, a doctor and chair of the University of Toronto’s family medicine department, as the candidate.
Scarborough Southwest is the other open Toronto riding where a byelection will be held. Former MP Bill Blair resigned his seat in that riding to become Canada’s high-commissioner in London.
Blair also won his seat handily in multiple elections going back to 2015.
The Liberals have recruited Doly Begum to run in the riding, Begum was the NDP MPP in the overlapping provincial riding and the party’s deputy leader at Queen’s Park before she made the decision to join the Liberals.
Neither the NDP nor the Conservatives have named candidates in any of the byelections yet.
