Beaches-East York MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith announces he will seek provincial Liberal nomination for Scarborough Southwest
The naming of Scarborough Southwest MP Bill Blair as Canada’s new High Commissioner to the United Kingdom has set off a political chain reaction in East Toronto.
The announcement that Blair is stepping down as the Liberal MP for Scarborough Southwest on Monday, Feb. 2, has resulted in surprising political announcements from the riding’s MPP and from the neighbouring riding’s MP today (Tuesday, Feb. 3).
The latest news came this afternoon with an announcement from Beaches-East York Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith that he will be seeking the nomination to be the Ontario Liberal candidate in the Scarborough Southwest riding when the provincial byelection takes place.
That byelection will be necessary because this morning Scarborough Southwest NDP MPP Doly Begum said she would be stepping down from her provincial responsibilities to run as the Liberal (not the NDP) candidate in a separate federal byelection that will be necessary to replace Blair.
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No dates have been set for any of the byelections.
In making his announcement through his newsletter this afternoon, Erskine-Smith said he was going “all in” for Ontario.
“The goal is to make the biggest difference we can when we have an opportunity to serve,” said Erskine-Smith in the newsletter.
“Doly Begum has been a strong progressive representative, she’s going to make a great Liberal MP for our east end community, and I have no doubt that she’ll make a bigger difference as a member of our federal team.”
Erskine-Smith said he will also continue to support Prime Minister Mark Carney and the federal Liberal team which holds minority government status.
“At the same time, I know that the biggest difference I can make is rebuilding our provincial Liberal party to deliver for Ontarians,” he said. “We’ve been working hard to build a provincial team that’s ready to run, win and govern together, and the rules for the leadership race will be announced soon.”
Erskine-Smith ran for the Ontario Liberal Party leadership in 2023, finishing second to winner Bonnie Crombie. (Shortly after that leadership race, Erskine-Smith said he would not run for re-election federally come the next election. However, he later reconsidered that position and did run and win the MP seat for the fourth time in last year’s federal election.)
As Ontario Liberal leader, Crombie was not elected to her own riding during the provincial election of February 2025 in which the Progressive Conservative Party of Premier Doug Ford won its third straight majority government. The Liberals finished third in the Ontario election and the NDP was second, to be named the province’s Official Opposition for the second time in a row. Crombie lost support of her party during a leadership review and then stepped down from her position earlier this year.
Erskine-Smith appears set to run again for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party given his announcement today.
“To that end, I’ll seek the Ontario Liberal Party nomination to run in the Scarborough Southwest byelection. I’ve communicated this to interim leader (of the Ontario Liberals) John Fraser, and I will continue to support Prime Minister Carney as an active member of our federal caucus in the meantime,” he said.
“We deserve better than this tired, incompetent, and self-dealing Conservative government,” he said of Ontario’s current leadership.
“We deserve smart, fair and honest leadership in Ontario.”
Erskine-Smith was first elected MP for Beaches-East York in the 2015 federal election and subsequently re-elected to the seat in the next three federal elections.
He was briefly Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities in the last days of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government at the end of 2024 and early 2025. Erskine-Smith was not named a cabinet minister by new Liberal Prime Minister Carney after the April 2025 federal election.
