Candidates Campaign Ahead of Byelections Expected to Give the Liberals a Majority

Candidates for three federal byelections in Ontario and Quebec spent their last day campaigning before voters go to the polls on April 13.

Two of the three byelections are in Toronto, while the third is in Terrebonne in the Montreal area.

The University-Rosedale riding in Toronto became vacant after former Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland resigned from Parliament in January. Freeland left her role as an MP after accepting a position as an adviser to the Ukrainian government.

The Scarborough Southwest riding in Toronto became vacant after Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Bill Blair resigned on Feb. 2. Blair was appointed as Canada’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom by Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The seat for the Terrebonne riding became vacant after the Supreme Court of Canada on Feb. 13 overturned the April 2025 election outcome for the riding. Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste was initially declared the winner in the riding by a single vote over Bloc Québécois candidate and former MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné.

The Bloc filed a legal challenge and asked the court to invalidate the results after reports came out that a voter had her mail-in ballot supporting Sinclair-Desgagné returned due to a misprint on the return envelope.

Liberal cabinet ministers swept through the Terrebonne riding throughout the campaign in an effort to support Auguste’s return to the House of Commons. Carney also campaigned in the riding alongside Auguste on April 9 and the Liberals held a convention in Montreal over the weekend, which helped the party put more boots on the ground in the area.

The Liberals are currently sitting at 171 seats in the House of Commons, just one seat shy of a majority. After recent floor-crossings, the Liberals no longer need to win all three byelections to earn a majority government.

The two Toronto ridings are long-time safe Liberal seats, while the Terrebonne riding is considered a toss up between the Bloc and the Liberals.

If the Liberals win both Toronto ridings as expected, the party would have 173 seats in the House of Commons, bringing the party a slim majority that would not require the House Speaker, Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia, to cast a vote to break a tie on important votes.

The surprise floor crossing last week of MP Marilyn Gladu from the Conservatives to the Liberals made it unlikely for the Terrebonne riding to be a make-or-break election for the Liberals to get a clear majority.

Gladu is one of four Tory MPs to cross the floor in the last five months, after former Conservative MP Chris d’Entremont joined the Liberal Party on Nov. 4, 2025, followed by fellow former Tory MPs Michael Ma on Dec. 11, 2025, and Matt Jeneroux on Feb. 18.

Former NDP MP Lori Idlout also announced she is leaving her party to join the governing Liberals March 10.

In the Terrebonne riding, Auguste and Sinclair-Desgagné are among a total of 48 candidates as the Longest Ballot Committee has targeted the riding with more than 40 “independent” candidates as a protest to change the electoral system.

Voters in Terrebonne are required to cast write-in ballots for the byelection, something Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault said worked “well” the last time it was used in an Alberta byelection, compared to lengthy folded ballots listing all the names. Under this system, voters have to write the name of their desired candidate instead of marking a blank circle next to the candidate’s name.

Noé Chartier and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.