Federal byelections to be held in Manitoba, Quebec, Ontario next month

Voters will be heading to the polls for federal byelections next month in four electoral districts in Manitoba, Quebec and Ontario.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the byelections for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount, Quebec; Oxford, Ontario; Portage–Lisgar, Manitoba; and Winnipeg South Centre, Manitoba will be held on June 19.

One race comes after the recent death of the incumbent MP, while others are to fill seats left vacant after the incumbent MPs stepped down.

They include the former seat of Candice Bergen, former interim leader for the Conservative Party, a seat the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) leader Maxime Bernier is hoping to snag.

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PORTAGE-LISGAR

Bergen stepped down from her position as MP in February after 14 years. She had represented the riding of Portage-Lisgar since 2008, and served as interim party leader for the Conservatives in 2022 after Erin O’Toole was ousted as leader.

Bernier announced his desire to run for the seat earlier this week, prior to the byelection being called. The former Conservative cabinet minister, who quit the Conservative party in 2018 after losing its 2017 leadership contest to Andrew Scheer, has since run for office twice after forming his own party. He was unsuccessful in both of his attempts to gain a seat in 2019 and 2021.

Branden Leslie is the Conservative party candidate for the riding, winning the nomination in April.

WINNIPEG SOUTH CENTRE

This seat had remained vacant since the death of Jim Carr, longtime Liberal MP and former cabinet minister, in December of last year.

He died after a years-long battle with cancer at the age of 71. Carr had served several roles between 2015 and 2019, including as natural resources minister and minister of international trade diversification.

The Liberal candidate hoping to win the vacant seat is Carr’s son, Ben Carr. He announced his candidacy in February, saying he was committed to “serving this community as an honest and hardworking bridge-builder who brings people together to accomplish collaborative change.”

NOTRE-DAME-DE-GRACE–WESTMOUNT

Former astronaut and Liberal MP Marc Garneau announced he was leaving office in March, after 14 years as an MP.

“My challenge to you is to find your better angels, and to put away the anger and false indignation,” he said to his colleagues during what he called his “final speech” in the House of Commons on March 8. “Criticize by all means, but do it with respect and maybe even wit. Make Canadians proud of this House and the people in it.”

Garneau said he had promised his family he would retire after completing a final report for a committee he chaired on medical assistance in dying, a report which was tabled mid-February. As an astronaut, he was the first Canadian to fly in space on Shuttle Mission 41-G in 1984. He was first elected as an MP in 2008.

The Liberal candidate tapped to run in the riding is Anna Gainey, the party’s past president. Gainey has been active on social media ahead of the call, tweeting about knocking on doors in the riding and getting support from members of the Liberal Party.  

OXFORD

In December 2022, former Conservative MP Dave MacKenzie announced that he was retiring from office after nearly two decades in politics. He had been re-elected to the Oxford riding during the federal election in 2021.

The candidate selected to represent the Conservatives in the upcoming byelection is Arpan Khanna, who received a boost earlier this week when Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre showed up to a rally in Woodstock to support his run.

Khanna is a Brampton lawyer who served as Ontario campaign co-chair during Poilievre’s federal leadership campaign. He was announced as the candidate for Oxford only after a nomination process that saw two senior members of the party’s riding association resign. MacKenzie’s daughter, Deb Tait, had also been bidding for the nomination.