Liberals Win All Three Byelections in Ontario, Quebec, and BC

The Liberals held onto their seats in Ontario’s Beaches-East York and B.C.’s North Vancouver-Capilano, and flipped the seat in Quebec’s Chicoutimi-Le Fjord from the Conservatives, in the Aug. 31 byelections.

Liberal Daniel Gobeil won the race in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord with 51.3 percent of the vote, with Bloc Québécois candidate Caroline Dubé following with 32.9 percent of the vote and Conservative candidate Régis Gaudreault in third place with 12.5 percent. The riding was previously held by Conservative MP Richard Martel.

Gobeil is a dairy farmer and former chair of Quebec’s dairy producers’ association.

In the Toronto race, Liberal candidate Tanveer Shahnawaz won with 55.7 percent of the vote, followed by the NDP’s Shannon Devine with 25.8 percent and Conservative candidate Jim Syrbos with 15.5 percent. Shahnawaz previously served as constituency office manager for former Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith, who held the riding before resigning from Parliament in July.

In Vancouver, Liberal Braeden Caley won with 58.6 percent of the vote, followed by Conservative Stephen Curran with 29.2 percent and the Green Party’s Shelley Luce with 8.7 percent.

Caley formerly served as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s deputy chief of staff and was a senior member of his election campaign. The riding was previously held by long-time Trudeau-era cabinet minister Jonathan Wilkinson, who resigned to become Canada’s ambassador to the European Union.

Carney said the byelection results show that at “this consequential time for Canada, voters have placed their trust in our government’s plan.”

“We accept their support with humility and determination,” he said in a statement. “Despite the headwinds, we are building Canada strong.”

With the three byelection wins, the Liberals will hold onto their narrow majority in the House of Commons, now holding 173 seats, while a number of vacancies remain.

Compared to the April 2025 election, the Conservatives lost the seat in the Chicoutimi-Le Fjord riding, while moving into third place behind the NDP in Beaches-East York, down from their previous position of second. The Tories maintained their second-place position in North Vancouver-Capilano, with a slightly smaller share of the vote compared to the last election.

The NDP fell behind the Greens in North Vancouver-Capilano to take fourth place, compared to its previous third-place position in the April 2025 election. The party, however, improved its ranking in Beaches-East York, moving into second place from third, ahead of the Conservatives. The NDP’s performance remained the same in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, coming in fourth with roughly the same share of the vote.

The Bloc’s performance in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord remained relatively the same as in the last election, coming in second with roughly the same portion of the vote, but this time with a considerably wider margin behind the Liberals.

Quebec Riding

The Toronto and Vancouver ridings are known Liberal strongholds, with the governing party expected to hold on to those seats, but the byelection in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord was a wild card, as the last election in the Quebec riding was a close race between the Conservatives, the Bloc, and the Liberals.

The seat in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord became vacant when Conservative MP Martel was appointed to the Senate by Carney in July.

Martel, who had held the seat since a 2018 byelection, last won the riding in the April 2025 election with 34.14 percent of the vote, with the Bloc candidate receiving 31.19 percent and the Liberal candidate 31.12 percent.

Ontario and BC Ridings

Both the Beaches-East York and North Vancouver-Capilano were won by the Liberals in the last election by wide margins.

In Beaches-East York, Erskine-Smith won the April 2025 election with 67.8 percent of the vote, followed by the Conservative candidate with 23.5 percent and the NDP candidate with 6.9 percent.

In North Vancouver-Capilano, Wilkinson won the last election with 59.8 percent of the vote, followed by the Conservative candidate with 33.7 percent and the NDP with 4.2 percent.