Liberals hold Toronto riding in Ontario provincial byelection
CTV
The Ontario Liberals won a pair of provincial byelections Thursday, including snagging a previously Progressive Conservative seat.
The Ontario Liberals won a pair of provincial byelections Thursday, including snagging a previously Progressive Conservative seat.
The party has no leader at the moment, though five people are vying for the title, and has severely diminished resources following two successive electoral routs, but it finished the evening with its highest seat count since 2018.
Wins by Andrea Hazell in Scarborough-Guildwood and Karen McCrimmon in Kanata-Carleton bring the Liberals to nine seats in the legislature. It's still not enough for official party status or to put them within striking distance of the Official Opposition NDP, but the party framed the victories as momentum ahead of the 2026 general election.
Scarborough-Guildwood was represented for 10 years by former Liberal cabinet minister Mitzie Hunter until she resigned in May to run in the mayoral byelection. Her successor, Hazell, is a community advocate, small business owner and chair of the Scarborough Business Association.
“The Ontario Liberals are standing up for those who call Scarborough home, for working people, for families, for healthcare, and for education,” she said in a statement.
The Progressive Conservatives ran local councillor Gary Crawford as a candidate, but he finished more than 1,000 votes behind Hazell.
In the Ottawa-area riding of Kanata-Carleton, Karen McCrimmon - the former Liberal MP for the riding - won the seat for the Liberals by 651 votes over Progressive Conservative candidate Sean Webster.
