Trudeau announces byelections in Quebec, Manitoba ridings for September

Voters in two Canadian ridings — one in Quebec and another in Manitoba — will head to the polls in September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sunday in announcing that the campaign period for the pair of byelections has begun.

The byelections will be held Sept. 16.

In Quebec, the Liberals are hoping to hold the LaSalle—Émard—Verdun riding, which became vacant when former justice minister David Lametti resigned from politics.

That riding has been Liberal red since its creation in 2013 and first its election in 2015, which swept the Liberals into power. Lametti has held it in each subsequent election with more than 40 per cent of the vote.

The Liberals have put forward Montreal city councillor Laura Palestini as their candidate, though her nomination raised controversy last week after Trudeau handpicked her to run despite three other contenders having campaigned for months for a nomination contest that never came.

Soraya Martinez Ferrada, the party’s campaign co-chair, said at the time it was Trudeau’s decision to prevent party members from choosing the candidate and to instead select Palestini, who represents the LaSalle borough on Montreal’s city council.

The Conservatives have picked Louis Ialenti, who the party describes as a “common-sense small business owner.” The NDP, meanwhile, have chosen another Montreal municipal councillor, Craig Sauvé, while the Bloc Quebecois has not yet named their candidate.

The byelection could be high stakes for the Liberals, who lost the Ontario riding of Toronto-St. Paul’s to the Conservatives by a slender margin last month in what was expected to be a sure thing for the governing party.

In Manitoba, the NDP are hoping to keep the riding of Elmwood-Transcona in orange hands after three-term