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Voters head to the polls for 3 federal byelections in Ontario, Quebec and B.C.

Canada August 31, 2026 04:03 PM
Voters head to the polls for 3 federal byelections in Ontario, Quebec and B.C.

Voters head to the polls for 3 federal byelections in Ontario, Quebec and B.C.

CBC News will hold special coverage beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET

Voters are heading to the polls on Monday to decide three federal byelections in the British Columbia riding of North Vancouver–Capilano, the Ontario riding of Beaches–East York and the Quebec riding of Chicoutimi–Le Fjord.

Due to various vacancies, the Liberals have 170 seats in the House of Commons and the opposition parties have a combined total of 166 seats.

The Liberals will need to secure two wins to guarantee control of the legislative agenda once all the seats are eventually filled.

The most competitive race is expected to be in Chicoutimi–Le Fjord. Former Conservative MP Richard Martel held the riding since 2018 but stepped down last month after being appointed to the Senate.

The Liberals and Bloc Québécois are gunning for the seat, which polls suggest is a toss-up between the two parties. Daniel Gobeil is the candidate for the Liberals, and Caroline Dubé is running for the Bloc.

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Other candidates in the riding include Régis Gaudreault for the Conservatives, Raphaël Émond for the New Democratic Party and Nathe Perrone for the Green Party.

In the Ontario riding of Beaches–East York, candidates are looking to replace former Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, who won the riding by about 26,000 votes in the 2025 federal election.

The candidates in that riding are: Tanveer Shahnawaz for the Liberals, Jim Syrbos for the Conservatives, Shannon Devine for the NDP and Bruce Livesey for the Green Party.

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And in the B.C. riding of North Vancouver–Capilano, candidates are looking to replace former Liberal MP Jonathan Wilkinson, who won the riding by about 16,500 votes in the 2025 federal election.

Wilkinson, who was a cabinet minister under both Prime Minister Mark Carney and former prime minister Justin Trudeau, vacated the seat in July after he was appointed by Carney to be Canada's ambassador to the European Union.

The candidates in that riding are: Braeden Caley for the Liberals, Stephen Curran for the Conservatives, Stephen Tweedale for the NDP and Shelley Luce for the Green Party.

CBC News will have special coverage of the byelections with chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton and Power & Politics host David Cochrane. It will begin at 9:30 p.m. ET and can be found anywhere you stream CBC News.

Should the Liberals lose all three byelections, they'll have additional opportunities in the future to nab the two wins they need for a majority.

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The prime minister has yet to call three byelections in the Quebec ridings of Saint-Hyacinthe–Bagot–Acton and Rosemont–La Petite–Patrie and the Ontario riding of Scarborough North.

Plus, Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall is expected to officially resign on Monday from her seat in the Saskatchewan riding of Yorkton–Melville, and Conservative MP Larry Brock says he'll step down from his seat in the Ontario riding of Brantford–Brant South–Six Nations next month.

Benjamin Lopez Steven is an associate producer for CBC's The House and a digital writer with CBC Politics. He was also a 2024 Joan Donaldson Scholar and a graduate of Carleton University. You can reach him at benjamin.steven@cbc.ca or find him on X at @bensteven_s.