Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Sunday that by-elections will be held in two federal electoral districts on September 16th.
An election is being held in the LaSalle-Emard-Verdun electoral district to fill the Quebec seat left vacant by the retirement of former Liberal cabinet minister David Lametti.
Lametti, a lawyer who served as minister of justice and attorney general, has easily won three consecutive elections in Montreal since 2015.
City councillor Laura Palestini is running for the Liberal Party in the ward, while the New Democrats are also fielding city councillor Craig Sauvé. The Bloc Québécois has not yet announced its candidate. In the past three elections, a Bloc candidate has come in second and a New Democrat candidate third.
The second by-election, scheduled for Sunday, will be held in Elmwood-Transcona to choose a replacement for former Manitoba NDP MP Daniel Blakey, who left federal politics to work in the provincial NDP government.
Blaikie has held his Winnipeg seat since 2015, when he narrowly won it back to the NDP by less than 100 votes over incumbent Conservative Lawrence Tote that year.
The constituency was traditionally a New Democrat stronghold before Toth served one term from 2011 to 2015. Daniel’s father, Bill Blakey, represented the area in federal Parliament from 1979 to 2004.
Leila Dance, president of the local business improvement group, is running under the NDP banner. The Conservatives, traditionally the second-placed party in the region, have nominated electrician Colin Reynolds. The Liberals have nominated union leader Ian McIntyre as their candidate.
Answering reporters’ questions for the first time since the Liberal party’s defeat in last week’s Toronto-St. Paul by-election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told CBC News he is “committed” to staying on as Liberal leader amid calls for him to resign.
The election will be the Liberal party’s first test of electoral strength since a shock defeat in the Toronto-St. Paul by-election in June caused unrest within the government.
It was the Liberal party’s first loss in a Toronto riding since 2015 and comes at a time when its support ratings in national polls continue to stagnate, casting doubt on the strength of its government heading into the next election.
Several party members called for an emergency national conference but Trudeau rejected it, and has consistently maintained he will lead the party through the next election.
