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Liberals Will Defend Five Seats in Provincial Byelections on August 1
At least one sitting city councillor will be among the candidates.
The province has just announced that byelections for five seats at Queen’s Park—all of them left vacant after resignations by Liberal MPPs—will be held on August 1.
Only two Toronto ridings are caught up in this: Etobicoke-Lakeshore and Scarborough-Guildwood. The former should be an interesting race. Councillor Peter Milczyn (Ward 5, Etobicoke-Lakeshore) has the Liberal nomination, meaning he could end up running against his fellow councillor, Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke-Lakeshore), whom the Sun says is mulling a run on the PC ticket. Both men are members of Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee. The winner would have to resign his council seat.
In Scarborough-Guildwood, the Liberal nominee is Mitzie Hunter, former CEO of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance, an organization that advocates for solutions to regional problems.
Opposition party leaders are, according to the Star, already accusing Premier Kathleen Wynne of timing the votes in order to maximize the chances of Liberal success. Some consider these byelections to be an early test of the long-term strength of Wynne’s fledgling government.