Scarborough Southwest provincial Liberals to pick candidate for byelection at nomination meeting today
Ontario Liberals in Scarborough Southwest will pick their candidate for this year’s provincial byelection at a nomination meeting set for today (Saturday, May 9) at Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute.
Seeking the nomination are Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Ahsanul Hafiz, Qadira Jackson, and Mahmuda Nasrin.
Today’s nomination meeting has drawn attention from across the province and country for a number of reasons, including Erskine-Smith’s stated intention to also seek the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party.
The first step in that pursuit may (or may not) take place today.
Also drawing national attention to today’s nomination meeting is that Erskine-Smith is currently the federal Member of Parliament (MP) for the Beaches-East York riding. If he wins the nomination, he will step down from his position as MP which will also trigger the need for a federal byelection in Beaches-East York.
The reasons why there even needs to be a provincial byelection in Scarborough Southwest has also been the topic of much political focus recently.
The Scarborough Southwest riding had been held provincially by NDP MPP Doly Begum from 2018 to February of this year. However, Begum left the party and stepped down as MPP to run federally for the Liberals in the Scarborough Southwest federal byelection held on April 13 which she won easily.
Begum’s decision to seek the federal Scarborough Southwest seat for the Liberals after former MP Bill Blair stepped down in February of this year to become Canada’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom set off a round of political musical chairs in East Toronto.
After Begum said she was stepping down as MPP, Erskine-Smith declared the next day that he would be seeking the nomination for his party in the Scarborough Southwest provincial riding.
Today’s nomination meeting will see registered members of the Scarborough Southwest Provincial Liberal Association vote on who their candidate will be.
The meeting will take place from 11 a.m. until approximately 4 p.m., and interim Ontario Liberal leader John Fraser will be in attendance.
The four contenders seeking the nomination will present speeches starting at 11 a.m., and then voting by the registered members will begin. Depending on how the voting goes, the meeting is expected to end by 4 p.m. with a decision on who the Scarborough Southwest provincial candidate will be for the Liberals.
On April 28, the Scarborough Southwest NDP named Fatima Shaban as its candidate for the provincial byelection. The leader of the Ontario NDP, Marit Stiles, attended that nomination meeting which saw Shaban beat out two other contenders at Birchcliff Bluffs United Church.
According to Elections Ontario, the provincial byelection in Scarborough Southwest must take place no later than Sept. 3.
Beach Metro Community News will be covering today’s Scarborough Southwest provincial Liberal nomination meeting. Please visit us later today online for coverage on how the meeting went and who is selected as the candidate.
