CBC News will have live coverage of three federal byelections being held tonight in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.
Two of the contests being held this evening will be critical tests for the NDP, as the party looks to secure a Commons seat for leader Jagmeet Singh in B.C. while hanging on to the seat vacated by the party’s former leader Thomas Mulcair in Quebec.
A win for Singh in the Vancouver-area riding of Burnaby South would give him his first chance to lead his party from within the House of Commons.
Singh is up against Liberal candidate Richard T. Lee, a former B.C. MLA, and Conservative candidate Jay Shin, a lawyer and newcomer to politics.
Polls close at 9:30 p.m. ET in Ontario and Quebec and at 10 p.m. ET in British Columbia.
Should the NDP manage to hold on tonight to Mulcair’s old Montreal-area riding of Outremont, it would give New Democrats a victory few thought they were capable of in the face of declining support for the party in Quebec.
The NDP has struggled since Singh became leader in 2017. The party now sits at 14 per cent nationally, 11 per cent in Quebec and 16 per cent in B.C., according to CBC’s poll tracker.
Julia Sanchez, a former international development executive, is the NDP’s candidate in Outremont. The Liberal candidate, Rachel Bendayan, is a lawyer and former party staffer. She ran against Mulcair in the last election, finishing second with 33.5 per cent of the vote to Mulcair’s 44 per cent.
WATCH: Power and Politics breaks down what’s at stake in the byelections
While the Conservatives usually have a tough time winning when the NDP is in a weakened position, the party is not expected to lose its seat in York-Simcoe, Ont., formerly held by Peter Van Loan.
The former leader of Stephen Harper’s government in the Commons, Van Loan stepped down from his seat in September and announced that he was retiring from politics.
Van Loan won York Simcoe in the 2015 federal election with more than 50 per cent of the vote to the Liberals’ almost 38 per cent.
This time, businessman Scot Davidson will be looking to repeat Van Loan’s success by beating Shaun Tanaka, a geography professor at Queen’s University and the University of Toronto, who also ran for the Liberals in the 2015 election.
CBC News byelection coverage
- Join us for results and analysis on a live Power & Politics byelections special, hosted by Vassy Kapelos and Eric Grenier, starting at 10 p.m. ET on cbc.ca, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. You can also follow results on a special edition of The National with Ian Hanomansing on CBC Television and CBC News Network. Check for updated stories at cbc.ca/politics
(CBC)
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