Canadians may feel a sense of deja vu as three new byelections are being called, the latest round of polls to be held this year.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the votes for the ridings of Beaches-East York in Ontario, Chicoutimi-Le Fjord in Quebec and North Vancouver-Capitano will be held Aug. 31.
The elections come just three months after voters in three Ontario ridings took to the polls that handed the Liberals three more MPs and the government’s first majority since the 2015 election.
All three seats became vacant earlier this summer, with one MP choosing to leave politics, one being named an ambassador to the European Union, and the third being named to the Senate.
Nate Erskine-Smith stepped down from his Beaches-East York earlier this month, two months after losing the Ontario Liberal Party nomination for Scarborough Southwest. He had previously told local media outlet, the Beach Metro Community News, he still planned to resign as MP whether he won the nomination or not. He’s now said he’s considering a run for Toronto city council.
The riding is considered a Liberal stronghold that the party has held since Erskine-Smith ran in 2015, but it was previously held by the NDP following its 2011 Orange Crush.
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North Vancouver-Capitano lost its MP, longtime Liberal MP and cabinet minister Jonathan Wilkinson, when he was named by Carney as Canada’s EU ambassador. He stepped down from Parliament last month.
The Liberals have held the riding since 2015 when Wilkinson defeated Conservative MP Andrew Saxton as the party swept to power under Justin Trudeau.
Quebec’s Chicoutimi-Le Fjord riding has switched hands multiple times over the past two decades between the Bloc Quebecois, NDP, Liberals and, since 2018, the Conservatives.
Richard Martel was named to the Senate by Carney earlier this month, when the prime minister dropped the non-partisan criteria for appointments that had been in place.
The Liberals currently hold 172 seats, the Conservatives hold 139, the Bloc Quebecois have 21, there are five NDP MPs, one Green MP. There is also one independent, Alexandre Boulerice, who was elected under the NDP banner but changed his status as he announced plans to run in the Quebec election later this year.
That leaves one vacancy in the riding of Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot-Acton in Quebec which became vacant when former Bloc MP Simon-Pierre Savard Tremblay left politics. The earliest a byelection can be called is Aug. 10, with the latest being Dec. 19, according to Elections Canada.
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