Voters in four federal ridings will soon be heading back to the polls just in time for Canada Day.
Alberta’s Fort McMurray-Athabasca and Macleod ridings and Ontario’s Scarborough-Agincourt and Trinity-Spadina ridings will elect new Members of Parliament in byelections scheduled for June 30.
Both Ontario seats are in the Toronto region, and were vacated for that city’s upcoming municipal election.
The Trinity-Spadina riding will attempt to replace former New Democrat MP Olivia Chow after her she stepped down in March to run for mayor of Toronto. Joe Cressy will get the nod for the NDP this time around, while Adam Vaughan will run for the Liberals and Benjamin Sharma will challenge for the Conservative Party of Canada.
And whoever replaces long-time Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis will have big shoes to fill in the Scarborough-Agincourt riding. The 25-year Parliament Hill veteran stepped down on Apr. 1, 2014, opening the door for Arnold Chan (Liberals) and Trevor Ellis (Conservatives) to duke it out for his spot. Karygiannis is running to be a Toronto city councillor.
In Alberta, four party candidates have already been nominated for the seat in Fort McMurray-Athabasca. David Yurdiga will run for the Conservatives, Lori McDaniel will run for the NDP, Kyle Harrietha will represent the Liberals and Tim Moen will be the Libertarian Party candidate. Conservative MP Brian Jean vacated his Fort McMurray-Athabasca seat on Jan. 17 after 10 years, saying he wanted to spend more time at home.
Meanwhile, John Barlow will seek to replace fellow Conservative Ted Menzies in Alberta’s Macleod riding. Menzies stepped down on Nov. 6, 2013 to return to private life in Alberta after nine years of working in Ottawa. Dustin Fuller will run against Barlow as the Liberal candidate.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the byelection dates on Sunday.
