It’s the negate Nate pact.
Two rival candidates have reached a mutual support agreement in a bid to block Ontario Liberal leadership hopeful Nate Erskine-Smith from winning the party’s nomination to run in a looming Scarborough Southwest byelection.
If they’re successful, it could derail a second bid for the Liberal leadership by the MP for neighbouring Beaches—East York.
“Our riding deserves a candidate that’s actually available and not using it as a stepping stone,” Qadira Jackson, a lawyer, said Tuesday of the verbal pact with fellow nomination candidate Ahsanul Hafiz, a Domino’s Pizza franchisee.
“If he and I back each other, one of us has a very good chance of winning,” added Jackson, who was the Liberal candidate for Scarborough Southwest in the 2025 provincial election.
The pact, in which Jackson supporters are being asked to list Hafiz as their second choice on a ranked ballot and vice-versa in voting this Saturday, was confirmed by the Hafiz campaign.
“It’s not uncommon in preferential ballots for candidates to make a deal like this,” said a strategist for Hafiz, speaking confidentially to discuss internal deliberations.
Hafiz, a native of Bangladesh with strong connections to the riding’s large Bengali community, did not reply to a request for comment.
In the 2023 Liberal leadership race, Erskine-Smith and Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi (Ottawa Centre) had a similar strategic voting pact to stop Bonnie Crombie. She won the job but quit in January after failing to win a seat in the legislature.
Erskine-Smith’s campaign said it is not worried by the new deal.
“We’re confident going into the nomination vote,” a spokesperson said.
For the Jackson and Hafiz campaigns, workers are “spreading the word” and will hand out sample ballots at Saturday’s vote to provide guidance for supporters in marking their preferences, the Hafiz strategist told the Star.
Erskine-Smith’s rivals have been portraying him as an outsider who needs the nomination and a byelection win to boost his odds of winning the party leadership on Nov. 21.
The 11-year MP, who was briefly housing minister at the tail end of Justin Trudeau’s tenure as prime minister, maintains he has many connections to Scarborough Southwest.
“Change begins in Scarborough,” he said recently about his desire to win the nomination, the riding and the leadership so he can defeat Premier Doug Ford in the next provincial election.
Should he win the nomination, Erskine-Smith has pledged to resign his seat in the House of Commons when Ford calls the byelection to replace popular former New Democrat MPP Doly Begum.
Begum resigned in February to run for the federal Liberals in an April 13 byelection, which she won with almost 70 per cent support.
Also seeking the Liberal nomination Saturday is immigration consultant Mahmuda Nasrin.
Erskine-Smith has not yet officially registered for the Liberal leadership race.
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