{"id":692022,"date":"2026-05-25T05:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T05:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/692022\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T05:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T05:29:09","slug":"nate-erskine-smith-loses-appeal-of-ontario-liberal-nomination-in-scarborough-southwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/692022\/","title":{"rendered":"Nate Erskine-Smith loses appeal of Ontario Liberal nomination in Scarborough Southwest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Nate Erskine-Smith speaks to the media as he walks out of Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute after losing the Ontario Liberal Party nomination in the riding of Scarborough Southwest on May 9.Arlyn McAdorey\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Nate Erskine-Smith has lost his appeal of the Ontario Liberal nomination contest in the Toronto riding of Scarborough Southwest, further casting doubt on his plan to run for provincial party leader.<\/p>\n

The federal Liberal MP, who was defeated in the nomination contest by 19 votes, filed a notice of appeal on May 12 to the Ontario Liberal Party\u2019s arbitration committee, alleging serious irregularities in the race.<\/p>\n

Businessman Ahsanul Hafiz, who owns a chain of Domino\u2019s Pizza restaurants, was declared the winner in the May 9 contest<\/a>, and will be the Ontario Liberal candidate in a yet-to-be-called by-election.<\/p>\n

In a decision released late Sunday night, the three-person arbitration committee dismissed Mr. Erskine-Smith\u2019s appeal and upheld the candidacy of Mr. Hafiz, who came to Canada from Bangladesh as a student more than two decades ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving carefully considered all of the evidence, we find that there were no irregularities in the conduct of the nomination meeting that affected the result of the vote or that call the meeting\u2019s integrity into question,\u201d the decision said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are satisfied that the party\u2019s rules were followed and that Ahsanul Hafiz was the true winner of the vote. The appeal is dismissed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ontario Liberal leadership race heats up as Stephanie Smyth endorses Lee Fairclough<\/a><\/p>\n

The Ontario Liberal Party, in a statement, defended its nomination process as \u201copen and transparent\u201d and said the focus now is on winning the seat in Scarborough Southwest, which was previously held by the NDP. It was vacated when Ontario NDP deputy leader Doly Begum quit to run for the federal Liberals.<\/p>\n

The committee was chaired by former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister David Zimmer. The party said it operated independently and was established well before the appeal was filed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that the arbitration committee dismissed this appeal, our focus is the voters of Scarborough Southwest. They have an important decision ahead, and we will work hard to earn their trust,\u201d interim Ontario Liberal leader John Fraser said in a statement Sunday.<\/p>\n

Mr. Erskine-Smith\u2019s campaign could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday.<\/p>\n

His appeal had asked for the results of the nomination to be set aside based on a series of irregularities, including allegations that voters were not providing adequate proof of identity and residency, and that they were being explicitly directed on how to vote.<\/p>\n

But the committee dismissed those concerns, saying it was satisfied that the voter-identification procedures at the nomination meeting were followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence does not support the inference that anyone who was not entitled to vote, voted,\u201d the decision found.<\/p>\n

The appeal also said that there were 34 more ballots in the boxes than there were recorded voters.<\/p>\n

But the arbitration committee said the 34-vote discrepancy is between the number of ballots that were counted and the number of names that were crossed off the voters list during the meeting.<\/p>\n

It said the evidence found that 34 names were not crossed off the voters list when eligible voters received ballots, calling it a \u201ctechnical administrative error\u201d that does not amount to an irregularity.<\/p>\n

Mr. Erskine-Smith had called on the party to redo the nomination or appoint a new candidate but said he would not run in the riding again to avoid the perception of \u201cself-interest.\u201d He also had said that temporary residents should not be allowed to vote in nomination contests, as is currently the case. <\/p>\n

The Ontario Liberal Party, including Mr. Fraser, have repeatedly defended how the nomination was run and stood by Mr. Hafiz as the candidate.<\/p>\n

Mr. Erskine-Smith had hoped to make the move to provincial politics as the candidate in a by-election in the east Toronto riding, before an expected run for leader of the Ontario Liberals.<\/p>\n

He has since told television networks that it is less likely he will run for leader, but that he hasn\u2019t made a final decision. He has said that he plans to resign his federal seat in the neighbouring riding of Beaches-East York this summer.<\/p>\n

In a blog post after his appeal was filed, Mr. Erskine-Smith alleged that \u201cdozens and dozens of asylum seekers voted with their refugee-claimant documents,\u201d and that others were able to prove where they lived by using apartment leases, sometimes unsigned.<\/p>\n

The appeal alleged that an unusually high number of people said they \u201cjust lost\u201d their driver\u2019s licence or that they \u201cjust moved\u201d to the area. It said the party verified identification rules inconsistently.<\/p>\n

It also said digital report cards, Amazon orders and other non-standard forms of residency were approved in an ad hoc manner.<\/p>\n

The appeal alleged that people were \u201cexplicitly directing others how to vote inside the voting booth,\u201d and that \u201ccountless individuals\u201d were taking pictures of their ballots or were on video calls while voting.<\/p>\n

The arbitration committee, however, found that the evidence \u201cpresents a picture of a lively nomination meeting attended by a diverse array of voters\u201d but said that the voting process was fair. It also noted that \u201cMr. Erskine-Smith and his representatives delayed in raising the concerns on which they now rely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Erskine-Smith\u2019s appeal called on the party to amend its voter-eligibility rules to limit participation to citizens and permanent residents and for Elections Ontario to manage nomination processes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Nate Erskine-Smith speaks to the media as he walks out of Birchmount Park…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-692022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}