What to know
- Tanveer Shahnawaz of the Liberal Party won the federal byelection in Beaches—York with over 55 per cent of the votes.
- The Liberals also won the byelections in British Columbia and Quebec.
- This clean sweep means Prime Minister Mark Carney will hold on to his majority hold in the House of Commons, with 173 seats.
Prime Minister Mark Carney held on to his majority foothold in the House of Commons after the Liberals swept all three byelections in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec.
Tanveer Shahnawaz, who previously worked as a constituency office manager for former Member of Parliament Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, secured the Beaches—East York riding in Toronto with 18,361, or 55.7 per cent of votes.
“It is going to now be the honour of a lifetime to represent the only home I’ve ever known as your next Member of Parliament for Beaches—East York,” Shahnawaz told the crowd at his post-election victory party.
In his speech, he expressed gratitude towards Carney, his colleagues and the community that helped win him the seat in the government.
“If it’s the thousands of conversations we’ve had over these last few weeks, it’s making sure we are community building, we are supporting Mark Carney’s Liberal government in some much needed nation building,” he said. “I’m going to be so looking forward to learning and working alongside such wonderful colleagues that we are so proud to be our Liberal government here. It’s a great time to be a liberal in Canada and in Beaches—East York.”
“It’s very fitting that we had our Prime Minister Mark Carney right here at Stone lion a few weeks ago, where we’re steps away from Lake Ontario.”
Shannon Devine of the NDP came a distant second with 25.8 per cent of the votes, despite weeks of door-to-door campaigning with Avi Lewis, the recently elected federal NDP leader.
Erskine-Smith resigned from his role as a MP in July after failing to obtain a provincial Liberal Party nomination for the Scarborough—Southwest riding byelection. In August, he announced he would be running for city council in Beaches—East York.
The federal Liberal Party also held on to their seat in North Vancouver—Capilano in B.C., with Braeden Caley winning with 58.6 per cent of votes. Before running for office, he served as Carney’s deputy chief of staff.
In the Quebec riding of Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, Daniel Gobeil won the seat with 51.3 per cent of the votes — the first time the Liberals have led the riding since 2015. Caroline Dubé of the Bloc Québécois came second.
With this clean sweep, Carney now controls 173 seats in the House of Commons, one over the 172 seats needed to form a majority.
