Voters Head to Polls Today in BC Byelection Marking Latest Test for Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and MP John Aldag listen during a press conference in Surrey, B.C, on March 28, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin

Voters in the Liberal-held B.C. riding of Cloverdale-Langley City will cast their ballots today to elect a new member of Parliament.

The byelection serves as yet another test for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government following the loss of two historically-held seats earlier this year.

Cloverdale-Langley City, located in the Fraser Valley to the east of Vancouver, has experienced a fluctuating political landscape in recent elections, alternating between the Liberal and Conservative parties.

The current contest will see Liberal party candidate Madison Fleischer go head-to-head with NDP candidate Vanessa Sharma, and Conservative candidate Tamara Jansen, who has previously held the seat.

Jansen defeated Liberal incumbent John Aldag in 2019, but Aldag made a comeback in the 2021 election, regaining his seat as MP by a margin of 1,654 votes.

Jansen sat on the House finance and health committees during her time in office and owns an agricultural business with her husband. She is described on her candidate page as an advocate for seniors and the disabled.

Their respective party websites describe Fleischer as the owner of a public relations firm and a community volunteer, and Sharma as a union leader, mental health advocate, and anti-racism activist.

The byelection was announced in November after Aldag resigned to run for the B.C. NDP in the October election—a race in which he was defeated by the B.C. Conservatives by more than 20 percentage points.

Also on the ballot in today’s vote are Green Party candidate Patrick McCutcheon, People’s Party of Canada representative Ian Kennedy, and the Libertarian Party of Canada’s Alexander Joehl.

Polling stations will be open for voters from 8:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. local time.

Track Record of Losses

Today’s byelection is considered another test for Trudeau and his Liberal government following the party’s defeats in byelections earlier this year.

The losses began in June with an unexpected defeat in a once-reliable Toronto stronghold. Tory candidate Don Stewart won with 42 percent of the vote in Toronto-St. Paul’s, a riding that had been held by the Liberals for more than 30 years.

The Liberals also lost in the Montreal riding of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun on Sept. 16, this time to the Bloc Québécois, after a tight three-way race between the two parties and the NDP that saw the Bloc’s Louis-Philippe Sauvé win with 28 percent of the vote. Montreal city councillors Laura Palestini, representing the Liberals, and Craig Sauvé, representing the NDP, received 27.2 and 26.1 percent of the vote, respectively.

The riding was previously held by former Justice Minister and Liberal MP David Lametti. He announced his decision to step away from politics at the beginning of the year after representing the riding since 2015.

The Liberals took a distant third in Winnipeg’s Elmwood-Transcona byelection the same day. The riding was an NDP stronghold and more of a test for party leader Jagmeet Singh than for Trudeau.

The vote turned into a tight race between the NDP’s Leila Dance, who garnered 48.1 percent of the vote to win the race over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds who nabbed 44 percent.

The Liberals’ consecutive byelection losses and poor polling numbers have prompted demands from both inside and outside Trudeau’s caucus for him to resign as party leader.

Trudeau has said he has no intention of stepping down and plans to lead his party in the next federal election.

The federal Liberals currently have 14 seats in B.C.—all of them situated in Vancouver and the surrounding area. The Liberal cabinet includes four ministers from the province: Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, Citizens’ Services Minister Terry Beech, and Sports Minister Carla Qualtrough.

Qualtrough, who serves as the representative for the Delta riding, announced in October she would not seek re-election.