Toronto MP Erskine-Smith says provincial leadership bid ‘less likely’ now as he challenges nomination loss

Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith discusses alleged voting irregularities in a Scarborough Southwest nomination race and why he’s appealing the result.

Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith cast doubt Tuesday on a potential leadership bid for the provincial Liberals, hours after filing a notice of appeal to that party challenging the result of a nomination race that he lost.

Erskine-Smith was vying to represent the provincial party in the upcoming Scarborough Southwest byelection ahead of an intended bid for the leadership of the party, but he now says that may not happen.

“I would say it’s certainly much less likely than it was heading into the weekend and not only because of the outcome, but also because of how the outcome was realized,” he said in an interview on CTV’s Power Play. (Watch the full interview above.)

Erskine-Smith lost Saturday to Ahsanul Hafiz by a slim margin then alleged there were voter ID issues.

He says there were 34 more ballots counted than the number of recorded voters, many people who couldn’t state their address and claimed to have “just lost” their driver’s licence, and people who used Amazon orders as proof of address.

“While it’s tough to lose a close one, it’s even more taxing on me to keep fighting,” Erskine-Smith wrote Tuesday in a blog post on Substack after filing the appeal. 

“I thought long and hard about letting it go because that would just be easier (for any future politics, for my own personal life, for my sanity, etc.). But doing politics differently is why I left law in the first place, and honesty and integrity matter more than whatever might be easier for me personally.”

The party is standing behind the integrity of the race and the vote as the appeal is now handled by its arbitration committee.

“I have complete confidence in the integrity of our party’s process and in the work of the arbitration committee,” interim leader John Fraser wrote in a statement. “The committee will review the appeal carefully, fairly and swiftly, consistent with our rules and procedures.”

Erskine-Smith said he wants the party to investigate his allegations in order to uphold the integrity of the process, not to benefit himself, so he is vowing not to run again in any new nomination contest the party might hold in that riding.

He also told CTV that he is still planning on resigning his federal seat, as he announced earlier this year when he first indicated he would seek the Scarborough Southwest nomination.

Erskine-Smith represents the neighbouring riding of Beaches-East York federally, and some of his fellow nomination candidates bristled at what they saw as a candidate trying to use their community as a springboard for the leadership.

He has suggested the party “establishment” was working to prevent him from winning the nomination, a charge the party denies.

The riding has been vacant since early February, when the NDP member of provincial parliament, Doly Begum, resigned to successfully run for the federal Liberals.

Premier Doug Ford has not yet called the byelection for that riding, but will have to do so by the summer. 

The NDP has nominated Fatima Shaban, who has run for the federal NDP previously in that riding. The Progressive Conservatives have not yet nominated a candidate.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2026.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press