What to watch for in Monday's 4 federal byelections
CBC
Four new MPs are set to be elected to the House of Commons Monday in a handful of byelections that political watchers say could expose rifts within the Conservative party and bring a new Liberal cabinet hopeful into the fold.
The Liberals are expected to hold on to seats in Winnipeg and Montreal, said Philippe J. Fournier, the polling analyst behind the 338Canada polling aggregator website.
The Tories, meanwhile, are poised to hang on in rural Ontario and Manitoba seats, he said — but their margins of victory in both ridings could be insightful for those looking to read the political tea leaves.
The closest thing to a nail-biter will likely occur in Oxford, a mostly rural riding in southern Ontario that has been a Conservative stronghold for nearly 20 years.
Party infighting has led to "the nastiest campaign that we've ever seen in our riding," said Dave MacKenzie, who announced he was stepping down from the seat in December.
"It's divided our party and our community."
MacKenzie won in the 2021 federal election with nearly 47 per cent of the vote, a 27-point margin over the Liberal candidate.
But his surprise endorsement of this contest's Liberal candidate, whom he calls "an honest guy," has turned heads — and Fournier said it could eat into the Conservatives' support.
"It's probably going to be Conservative win, but the fact that it's close [in polls] has to scare some Conservatives," he said.
"They cannot start losing Ontario seats if they want to win the next general election."
MacKenzie said he believes the Conservative party parachuted its candidate Arpan Khanna into the riding without due process.
He alleged that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and House Leader Andrew Scheer meddled in their local association by influencing the nomination process and taking away grassroots power.
Khanna helped Poilievre's campaign in Ontario during the leadership campaign and ran as a candidate for Scheer in a Brampton riding in 2019.
MacKenzie said Khanna's nomination has led to people cancelling their Conservative memberships and clawing back donations.
In the closing days of the NDP leadership race, Avi Lewis's past activism has resurfaced. But the front-runner's campaign is standing by his past work and a decade-old vision that's been both criticized within the New Democrats' ranks and weaponized by their opponents.
Some rural municipalities want the province to know ambulance response times and basic care in their communities are not meeting the mark.
The sighting of a sniper on Saturday during St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Waterloo was met with fear and shock by some partygoers, but one policing expert says this was a proactive measure designed to keep the crowd safe.
A 25-year old Prince Edward Island man has been sentenced to six months in jail for firearms offences.
Closing schools, stalled housing starts — not common headlines in Alberta's booming cities.
Two MLAs and the Ka'a'gee Tu First Nation chief say they welcome the territory’s new trespassing legislation because they believe it will help address concerns about uninvited guests intruding in people’s homes and refusing to leave.
U.S. President Donald Trump is struggling to persuade other nations to help protect commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — a development that analysts say is partly the result of treating allies with contempt since returning to the White House last year.
The actions of an Alberta judge who lost his temper and briefly jailed a defence lawyer in the middle of a trial were “unacceptable,” ruled the Judicial Inquiry Board, which recommended a 30-day suspension without pay for Justice Gordon Yake.
Irish-born chef Liam Brannigan says there are four words he loves to hear about the food he serves as he drives his food truck around southwestern Ontario.
Last spring, the Newfoundland and Labrador government announced a loan guarantee program for restaurants — but so far, businesses haven't tapped into it.
Several organizations and groups in Greater Sudbury, Ont. remain closed or operating under a modified schedule after a major storm hit the region Sunday night.
As Halifax scraps plans for a sobering centre, staff at similar facilities across Canada say they’re a crucial part of the continuum of care needed to address homelessness and addiction.
New Brunswick will table its latest budget Tuesday after months of warnings from Premier Susan Holt that spending in some areas will have to come down.