Voters in four Canadian ridings will go to the polls on June 19. Ottawa called this Sunday by-elections for seats in Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba.
In Montreal, voters in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount will choose the elected official who will replace former minister Marc Garneau, who retired at the beginning of March.
Elsewhere in Canada, the ridings of Oxford, Ontario, as well as Portage–Lisgar and Winnipeg South Center, Manitoba, will go through the same electoral process.
In this electoral turmoil to gain political dynamism, Maxime Bernier will try for a fourth time to be elected under the banner of the People’s Party of Canada (PPC). This time he will bet his chances in the rural riding of Portage–Lisgar. The PPC came second in the last election with 21.6% support, its best result in the country. Mr. Bernier’s party still remained far behind the Conservative Party and its 52.5% of the vote.
The Montreal election looks easy for the Liberals. Everything indicates that Anna Gainey, former president of the PLC and daughter of the former general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, Bob Gainey, will defend the red castle. Marc Garneau won 53.8% of the votes in 2021.
In Ontario, the Conservatives should keep their seat. They had obtained 47% of the votes in the last elections, against 20% for the Liberals.
Liberal candidate Ben Carr will try to keep Winnipeg South Center in the Liberal fold while taking over the job from his late father. Indeed, the riding lost its MP last year due to the death of Liberal MP Jim Carr.
The seat of MP for Oxford has been vacant since the retirement of veteran Conservative Dave MacKenzie, elected for 18 years. Similarly, the riding of Portage–Lisgar has been free since the resignation in February of Candice Bergen, the former interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
A fifth riding remains vacant across the country in Calgary Heritage, Alta., where Conservative Bob Benzen retired. Although the decision to call a by-election rests with the government, the provincial elections underway in the province, as well as the intense forest fires in the region, complicate the holding of a federal vote. The date of this fifth by-election of 2023 must be chosen by Ottawa by July 2.