The Liberals have come out victorious, winning handily in Monday’s federal byelection in east Toronto’s Beaches-East York riding, CTV News has declared.
Tanveer Shahnawaz, who previously served as the constituency office manager for departing Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, took a strong early lead. He earned 8.407 votes, just over 55 per cent of the vote, with 135 (67.5) of 200 polls reporting.
NDP Shannon Devine, a union and labour advocate, came in second place with 25.9 per cent of the vote with 135 polls reporting, while local coffee shop owner Jim Syrbos, of the Conservative Party, is the third-place finisher, with just under 16 per cent of the vote.
Green Bruce Livesey, a former TTC driver, came in fourth with just under 2 per cent of the vote.
Michel Lachance, of the People’s Party, along with Canadian Future Party candidate Cameron Thomas were also vying to be Beaches-East York’s next MP.
Riding a long-standing Liberal stronghold
Largely considered a Liberal stronghold, Beaches-East York has been red for nine of the riding’s 10 elections since it was formed 1997. It was held by the NDP for a four-year period from 2011–2015.
Outgoing Liberal MP Erskine-Smith represented the riding from 2015 until his resignation early last month following a failed run for the Ontario Liberal leadership. He won last year’s general election with 67.7 per cent of the vote, easily beating the Conservatives, who earned 23.5 per and the NDP, which got 6.9 per cent.
With files from CTV News
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