Conservative candidate Don Stewart won the by-election in the Liberal stronghold of Toronto–St. Paul’s, with just under 600 votes ahead of her closest rival, Liberal Leslie Church. The vote was described by analysts as a referendum on the management of Justin Trudeau’s government.
Preliminary results from 192 polling stations show Don Stewart received 15,555 votes, 590 more than Leslie Church, who received 14,965.
The fight was close until the end between the two main candidates.
The ballot was particularly long, as there were a total of 84 candidates in the running.
The riding of Toronto–St. Paul’s was a Liberal stronghold for over 30 years. The by-election aimed to replace former minister Carolyn Bennett, who retired.
Major defeat for the Liberals
Although Liberal candidate Leslie Church, former chief of staff for Minister Chrystia Freeland, was in the lead for most of the evening, the last batch of votes posted around 4:30 a.m. (EDT) gave the seat to Mr. Stewart and allowed Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre to make a breakthrough.
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Liberal candidate Leslie Church gave a speech to supporters during the vote count.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Evan Mitsui
The victory of Mr. Stewart, a finance specialist, is all the more surprising because the Liberals had managed to hold on to the riding even when the party was at its lowest, such as during the 2011 federal election, which did not had given only 34 liberal deputies to Parliament.
The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has not reacted yet.
The issues of housing, inflation and the conflict between Israel and Hamas dominated the campaign. Many voters also expressed a desire to change the ruling party.
NDP candidate Amrit Parhar received about 11% of the vote, while Green candidate Christian Cullis received about 3% of the vote.
With information from CBC’s John Paul Tasker
