Liberal candidate Mona Fortier celebrates after winning the Ottawa-Vanier federal byelection in Ottawa on Monday, April 3, 2017.

Liberal candidate Mona Fortier celebrates after winning the Ottawa-Vanier federal byelection in Ottawa on Monday, April 3, 2017.
Photo Credit: PC / Justin Tang

No seats change hands in 5 federal byelections

Byelections to fill five vacant seats in the House of Commons produced no surprises and very little enthusiasm among Canadian voters most of whom decided to stay home for the vote on Monday.

With only three out of 10 eligible voters turning out to vote, the governing Liberal Party managed to hold on to all three seats it was defending – two in Ontario and one in Quebec. However, the Liberal share of the overall vote nosedived by an average of 4.7 points.

The Conservatives easily defended their two strongholds in Calgary, Alberta, and even managed to increase their overall share of the vote by 4.2 points compared to their support in the 2015 federal election.

The byelection results were bad news for the New Democratic Party, which put up a decent fight in only one riding, in Ottawa-Vanier, and saw its overall share of the vote shrink by 2.2 points.

Liberal Candidate Mary Ng stands on the podium after winning the Markham-Thornhill federal byelection in Markham, Ontario, on Monday April 3, 2017.
Liberal Candidate Mary Ng stands on the podium after winning the Markham-Thornhill federal byelection in Markham, Ontario, on Monday April 3, 2017. © PC/Chris Young

In the Toronto-area riding of Markham-Thornhill, Liberal candidate Mary Ng, a former staffer in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office, won with 51.3 per cent of the votes, beating a strong challenge from her Conservative rival Ragavan Paranchothy.

Liberals needed a strong performance in the riding vacated by former Immigration Minister John McCallum, who’s now Canada’s ambassador in China, given the importance of holding Toronto if they want to form government in 2019.

And in Ottawa-Vanier, Liberal candidate Mona Fortier won with 51.2 per cent of the vote, fending off a challenge from the New Democrats who got 28.7 per cent of the vote.

Liberal candidate Emmanuella Lambropoulos reacts after winning the byelection in the Saint Laurent riding on Monday, April 3, 2017 in Montreal.
Liberal candidate Emmanuella Lambropoulos reacts after winning the byelection in the Saint Laurent riding on Monday, April 3, 2017 in Montreal. © PC/Ryan Remiorz

In the Montreal riding of Saint-Laurent, Liberal candidate Emmanuella Lambropoulos got 59.1 per cent of the vote, compared with Conservative rival Jimmy Yu, a distant second at just 19.5 per cent.

Lambropoulos, a 26-year-old high school teacher, stunned many when she won the Liberal nomination contest in Saint-Laurent, defeating former Quebec cabinet minister Yolande James.

“I’m sure it will hit me a little later,” she said after her victory speech late Monday.

James had been considered the Liberal party favourite to replace Stephane Dion, the former Liberal leader and foreign affairs minister who resigned his seat after losing his portfolio following a cabinet shuffle in January. Instead Dion was offered and eventually accepted the post of Canada’s ambassador to Germany and the European Union.

“I looked up to him,” said Lambropoulos, who worked in Dion’s office in the riding, which has been held by the Liberals since it was created in the late 1980s.

“I didn’t let anything stop me. I worked really, really hard; I didn’t stop.”

Conservative candidate Bob Benzen speaks after winning the federal byelection riding of Calgary Heritage in Calgary, Monday, April 3, 2017.
Conservative candidate Bob Benzen speaks after winning the federal byelection riding of Calgary Heritage in Calgary, Monday, April 3, 2017. © PC/Todd Korol

The Alberta ridings of Calgary Heritage and Calgary Midnapore, formerly held by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who resigned his seat following the party’s 2015 election defeat, and by Jason Kenney, a former Conservative federal cabinet minister who jumped into provincial politics, were no contest.

In Calgary Heritage, Bob Benzen won with 71.5 per cent of the vote, well ahead of his closest rival, the Liberals’ Scott Forsyth at 21.7 per cent.

In Calgary Midnapore, Conservative Stephanie Kusie cruised to an easy win, posting 77.2 per cent of the vote, leaving her closest rival Liberal candidate Haley Brown at 17.0 per cent.

With files from The Canadian Press

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