TORONTO—The NDP easily held onto Jack Layton’s Toronto-Danforth riding in Monday’s by-election.
The race was the NDP’s to lose, and Craig Scott took it by a mile, beating out his only real competitor Liberal Grant Gordon with double the percentage of the popular vote—59.4 percent compared to 28.5 percent.
Scott, a law professor at the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, has lived in the riding for 20 years. His good works include advocacy on anti-poverty and aboriginal rights. He’s also been working to hold Canadian companies to account for human rights violations and environmental harms committed in other countries.
While Gordon fell far short of winning, he grabbed enough of the vote to matter, unlike the Conservative and Green candidates who claimed just 5 percent of the vote.
When Layton led the perpetually third party to its historic win in the last election, voters never expected the tragedy that would soon follow.
His political accomplishments ended at their peak when he died Aug 22, 2011, within four months of claiming the title of Leader of the Official Opposition.
