The Canadian Press
Lee Berthiaume
OTTAWA–Upstart Conservative and New Democrat candidates gave their heavily-favoured Liberal rivals a bit of a scare yesterday in a pair of byelections in Ontario where some of Justin Trudeau’s policies and promises played a central role.
In the Toronto-area riding of Markham-Thornhill, Liberal candidate and former PMO staffer Mary Ng defeated Ragavan Paranchothy by a margin of nearly 2,500 votes after a stronger-than-expected early showing by her Conservative rival.
A robust performance in the riding, long a Liberal stronghold held by ex-cabinet minister John McCallum, was critical for the Liberals, given the importance of holding Toronto if they want to form government again in 2019.
It also was important for Ng, who currently is on a leave of absence from her job in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office and seen by some as a strong candidate for cabinet.
“The Liberal future is in Ontario,” said political analyst Tim Powers, vice-president of Summa Strategies.
“If the Liberal vote goes down in Markham-Thornhill, then they will want to spend a lot of time diagnosing what went wrong,” he noted.
That did, indeed, appear to be the case: with all polls reporting, Ng had claimed just 51.3 percent of the vote, compared with 55.72 percent in 2015.
The Tory share of the vote was nearly seven percent higher.
Conservative insiders had said the local campaign strategy involved talking about the Trudeau government’s forthcoming plan to legalize marijuana, but Ng said it “wasn’t an issue I heard at the door.”
In Ottawa-Vanier, where the New Democrats campaigned aggressively against the Liberals for breaking a promise to abandon the oft-maligned “first-past-the-post” electoral system, the NDP’s Emilie Taman gathered 28.7 percent of the vote.
It was nowhere near enough to challenge Liberal candidate Mona Fortier, however, who had 51.2 percent of the vote and finished 6,667 votes ahead of Taman.
“The government is going to take notice that the people of Ottawa-Vanier have their concerns,” Taman said in an interview afterward.
“I think it was an overall disappointment that I was hearing from people; that they didn’t really get the government they thought they were getting.”
Liberal party spokesman Braeden Caley was having none of it yesterday, calling the outcome a “phenomenal result,” also noting the government would be getting three new female MPs.
“They’re going to be tireless champions for their communities in Parliament,” he said.
Add in Conservative Stephanie Kusie, who cruised to victory in Calgary Midnapore–and that makes four more women on their way to Parliament Hill, said the advocacy group Equal Voice, which is committed to electing more female MPs.
That brings to 92 the total number of women in the House of Commons–27 percent of the available seats, up from 26 percent, said spokesperson Catherine Fortin LeFaivre.
“We are hopeful that tonight’s results will inspire even more women to seriously consider running for political office–Canada needs them,” she stressed.
Three other byelections took place yesterday–and their results were hardly a surprise.
In the Montreal riding of Saint-Laurent, Liberal candidate Emmanuella Lambropoulos won 59.1 percent of the vote, compared with Conservative rival Jimmy Yu, a distant second at just 19.5 percent.
The Alberta ridings of Calgary Heritage and Calgary Midnapore, formerly held by Stephen Harper and Jason Kenney, respectively, were no contest as the Tories cleaned house.
Bob Benzen, who claimed 71.5 percent of the vote in Calgary Heritage, well clear of the Liberals’ Scott Forsyth at 21.7 percent, portrayed his victory as a protest against Trudeau’s environmental policies.
Kusie took a similar tone as she cruised to an easy win in Calgary Midnapore, taking 77.2 percent of the vote–leaving her closest rival, Liberal candidate Haley Brown, at 17 percent.
