A Liberal stronghold fell on Monday, June 24 into the hands of the Conservatives, in the riding of Toronto-St. Paul’s in Ontario. Indeed, the PCC won the by-election, confirming the trend observed in the polls that Pierre Poilievre’s troops currently have the wind in their sails. For the local Conservative MP, Bernard Généreux, although this victory is satisfactory, it does not make spring.
The by-election, remember, was called by the Trudeau government after the retirement from political life of former Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett, who had sat for 26 years in the House of Commons.
Leslie Church, the Liberal candidate, thought she had won during the evening of the vote counting since she maintained a slight lead for a long time. However, at the finish line, the Conservative candidate Don Stewart caught up with his Liberal opponent with 15,555 votes (42.1%). Ms. Church had to settle for 14,965 votes (40.5%), or just under 600 votes from the Conservative result. Amrit Parhar of the New Democratic Party came in third with 4,044 votes, while Christian Cullis of the People’s Party of Canada came in fourth with 1,059 votes.
The by-election in this riding, which has been Liberal since 1993, was seen by many political observers as a real test of leadership for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, since the Conservatives have been ahead of the Liberals in voting intentions in Canada for several months. This Conservative victory after 31 years of Liberal rule thus reinforces the idea of a certain decline by Trudeau who is failing to revive his government. In the last general election in 2021, former Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett won this riding with a majority of 12,842 votes over her Conservative rival.
On the X network, opposition leader Pierre Poilievre called this Liberal defeat “surprising.” According to him, Trudeau must go back to consult Canadians on the legitimacy of his government.
“Congratulations to the common-sense Conservative candidate on his surprising victory in Toronto-St. Paul’s, where people voted to scrap the tax, build housing, fix the budget and stop crime. The verdict is clear: Trudeau can’t keep this up, and now he needs to call an election on the carbon tax.”
Happy with this close victory, the local conservative deputy nevertheless remained a little embarrassed, he who has seen several others in his political career, but he was nevertheless happy to repeat the slogans of his political formation which made the last by-election a success. “Let’s remain humble and active to make our message clear to voters, which is to cut taxes, build housing, repair the budget and stop crime. »
