Canadian federal by-elections, 2008

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In 2008, at least eight federal by-elections may be held. Four by-elections were held on March 17, 2008 to fill vacancies in the Canadian House of Commons caused by the resignations of Liberal MPs Gary Merasty (Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River), Bill Graham (Toronto Centre), Stephen Owen (Vancouver Quadra) and Jim Peterson (Willowdale).

Further by-elections may be held later in the year, if a general election is not called in the interim, due to the resignations of Liberal MPs Lucienne Robillard (Westmount—Ville-Marie) and Brenda Chamberlain (Guelph) as well as Bloc Québécois MP Maka Kotto (Saint-Lambert). Sitting Liberal MP John Godfrey (Don Valley West) has announced his resignation effective on July 1, 2008.

At present, none of the further by-elections has been formally scheduled or announced.

Contents 1 March 17 by-elections 1.1 Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River 1.2 Toronto Centre 1.3 Vancouver Quadra 1.4 Willowdale 2 Pending by-elections 2.1 Westmount—Ville-Marie 2.2 Saint-Lambert 2.3 Guelph 3 Prospective by-elections 3.1 Don Valley West 4 References

[edit] March 17 by-elections

With all four by-elections taking place in ridings previously held by the Liberals, media generally treated them as a test of Stéphane Dion's leadership. The riding of Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, which the Liberals had won by a margin of just 68 votes in the 2006 election and in which the by-election campaign was mired in controversy around the process of appointing candidates, was seen as the only riding of the four that the Liberals could afford to lose — the other three were all safe Liberal ridings whose loss would have been seen as precipitating a major crisis for the party.^[1]

[edit] Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River

The riding of Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River became vacant on August 31, 2007 with the resignation of Liberal MP Gary Merasty.

David Orchard, a former member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and backer of Stéphane Dion during the Liberal leadership contest, had announced that he would seek the Liberal nomination in Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River. However, on January 3, 2008, Dion used his power of appointment to appoint Joan Beatty as the Liberal candidate for that riding. While Dion has stated several times that he would use his power of appointment to ensure more female candidates ^[2], many felt the appointment was a snub to his erstwhile supporter and media reports suggested that Ralph Goodale, a prominent Saskatchewan MP, opposed Orchard's candidacy.^[3]

Beatty, who was a New Democratic Party MLA in the Saskatchewan legislature until her federal candidacy was announced, also faced some criticism, both for her switch in party affiliations and for resigning to run federally just seven weeks after being reelected in the 2007 provincial election.^[4] Some Liberal Party members in the riding threatened to boycott the by-election entirely, or to vote for another party, if Dion did not rescind the appointment and allow a normal nomination contest to take place.^[5]

Voter turnout: 10,462 of 41,841 registered electors (25.0%)

By-election on March 17, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rob Clarke	4,992	47.66%	+6.57%
	Liberal	Joan Beatty	3,296	31.47%	-9.90%
	New Democrat	Brian Morin	1,830	17.47%	+2.10%
	Green	Robin Orr	320	3.05%	+0.89%
Total rejected ballots			37	0.35%	-
	Conservative gain		Swing	+8.2

[edit] Toronto Centre

The riding of Toronto Centre became vacant on July 2, 2007, with the resignation of Liberal MP Bill Graham.

The original Conservative candidate, Mark Warner, was dropped by the party's national council on October 31, 2007^[6], reportedly for not following party policy. Warner eventually endorsed Rae rather than his successor as Conservative candidate, Don Meredith, after Meredith reportedly told a voter who asked him a question about the ongoing bedbug problem in the St. Jamestown neighbourhood to improve their personal hygiene.^[7]

Voter turnout: 23,951 of 85,976 registered electors (27.9%).

By-election on March 17, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Bob Rae	14,187	59.23	+7.03
	New Democrat	El-Farouk Khaki	3,312	13.83	-9.91
	Green	Chris Tindal	3,199	13.36	+8.15
	Conservative	Don Meredith	2,939	12.27	-5.94
	Animal Alliance	Liz White	123	0.51	+0.39
	Canadian Action	Doug Plumb	97	0.40	-
Total rejected ballots			96	0.40	-
	Liberal hold		Swing	+8.5

[edit] Vancouver Quadra

The riding of Vancouver Quadra became vacant on July 27, 2007 with the resignation of Liberal MP Stephen Owen. Joyce Murray won the Liberal nomination in the riding and faced a hard-fought campaign against Conservative challenger Deborah Meredith. Murray, originally an MLA and former provincial cabinet minister from New Westminster, grew up in the riding, but recently moved back to run for federal office. Her campaign was focussed on environmental issues. Meredith is a UBC law lecturer and has lived in Vancouver Quadra her whole life, campaigning primarily on a tougher judicial system. NDP candidate and UBC student Rebecca Coad focussed her attacks on Murray, criticizing her record as provincial environment minister in Gordon Campbell's government. Green Party candidate Dan Grice, a technology consultant, ran a campaign based on cutting down on carbon emissions and tax shifting, hoping for an electoral breakthrough for his party.

On election day, early results showed Murray and Meredith in a dead heat, see-saw race. Later in the night, Murray was able to capture a more comfortable lead of several hundred votes, and the media declared her the winner. However, as the advanced polls were opened and counted, Meredith started to close the gap. After all 237 polls were counted, Murray remained in the lead, finishing with a narrow 151 (0.53%) vote margin above her Conservative opponent.

Voter turnout: 28,165 of 83,121 registered electors (33.9%).

By-election on March 17, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Joyce Murray	10,155	35.96%	-12.88%
	Conservative	Deborah Meredith	10,004	35.42%	+6.33%
	New Democrat	Rebecca Coad	4,064	14.39%	-1.71%
	Green	Dan Grice	3,792	13.43%	+8.29%
	Neorhino.ca	John Turner	111	0.39%	-
	Canadian Action	Psamuel Frank	40	0.14%	-
Total rejected ballots			77	0.27%
	Liberal hold		Swing	-9.56

[edit] Willowdale

The riding of Willowdale became vacant on July 12, 2007 with the resignation of Liberal MP Jim Peterson. Martha Hall Findlay, former Liberal leadership contestant, was a star candidate. She faced Conservative lawyer Maureen Harquail, NDP candidate Rini Ghosh, and Green candidate Lou Carcasole. On election night, Hall Findlay garnered nearly 60% of the vote.

Voter turnout: 22,797 of 93,413 registered electors (24.4%).

By-election on March 17, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Martha Hall Findlay	13,507	59.15%	+6.92%
	Conservative	Maureen Harquail	6,841	29.96%	+0.65%
	Green	Lou Carcasole	1,314	5.75%	+1.66%
	New Democrat	Rini Ghosh	1,082	4.74%	-6.61%
Total rejected ballots			93	0.41%	-
	Liberal hold		Swing	+3.1

[edit] Pending by-elections

This article or section contains information about a forthcoming election. Content may change dramatically as the election approaches.

Writs of election must be issued within six months of a parliamentary seat becoming vacant unless a federal election is called first.

[edit] Westmount—Ville-Marie

The riding of Westmount—Ville-Marie has been vacant since January 25, 2008 due to the resignation of Liberal MP Lucienne Robillard.

By-election on a date to be determined On Ms Robillard's resignation, 25 January 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Marc Garneau
	Bloc Québécois
	Conservative	Guy Dufort
	New Democrat
	Green	Claude Genest
	Neorhino.ca	Judith Vienneau

[edit] Saint-Lambert

The riding of Saint-Lambert has been vacant since March 13, 2008 due to Bloc Québécois MP Maka Kotto's resignation in order to run for a seat in the Quebec National Assembly. Kotto was elected to the National Assembly in a May 12, 2008 provincial by-election.

By-election on a date to be determined On the reception of Mr Kotto's resignation, 13 March 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Roxane Stanners
	Bloc Québécois
	Conservative	Patrick Clune
	New Democrat
	Green
	Canadian Action	Alexandre Amirizian

[edit] Guelph

The riding of Guelph was held by Liberal Brenda Chamberlain, who resigned her seat effective April 7, 2008.

NDP leader Jack Layton used the Guelph riding as a backdrop to hold a campaign style press conference on March 28, requesting that the Prime Minister call a by-election in this and other ridings at his earliest possible opportunity.^[8][9]

By-election on a date to be determined On Ms Chamberlain's resignation, 7 April 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Frank Valeriote
	Conservative	Gloria Kovach
	New Democrat	Tom King
	Green	Mike Nagy

[edit] Prospective by-elections

This article or section contains information about a forthcoming election. Content may change dramatically as the election approaches.

The Parliamentary seat for the following riding is currently occupied, however the MP has announced his intention to resign in the near future. A Writ of election must be issued within six months of a parliamentary seat becoming vacant unless a federal election is called first.

[edit] Don Valley West

The riding of Don Valley West is currently held by Liberal John Godfrey, who announced his intention to resign from the House of Commons on July 1, 2008 in order to accept a position as headmaster of Toronto French School.

Rob Oliphant was nominated as the Liberal Party's standard-bearer on March 2, 2008 after defeating former Parkdale—High Park MP Sarmite Bulte for the nomination on the fourth ballot. Constitutional lawyer Deborah Coyne had also contested the nomination but withdrew in February and backed Oliphant.^[10]

The Conservative Party of Canada has re-nominated 2006 candidate John Carmichael while the New Democratic Party has nominated Brad Slipiec.

By-election on a date to be determined On Mr. Godfrey's pending resignation announced for 1 July 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Rob Oliphant
	Conservative	John Carmichael
	New Democrat	Brad Slipiec
	Green
	Libertarian	Soumen Deb

[edit] References