Conservatives decisively win B.C. federal byelection, dealing another blow to Trudeau
Cloverdale—Langley City byelection was won by Tamara Jansen, who held the seat from 2019 to 2021
The Conservatives comfortably won a federal byelection in the Cloverdale—Langley City riding, dealing yet another blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party.
Tamara Jansen, who held the seat from 2019 to 2021, won decisively over the Liberals' Madison Fleischer and the NDP's Vanessa Sharma, securing almost two-thirds of the vote.
The loss of the riding is another blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals, who are in turmoil after the Monday resignation of Chrystia Freeland from her role as finance minister and deputy prime minister.
Freeland stepped down just as she was to deliver a fall economic statement, prompting calls for Trudeau to resign.
The final results had Jansen securing 9,931 votes, compared to Fleischer's 2,401 votes, with 122 out of 122 polls reporting.
"It might not have been the result we were expecting or hoping," Fleischer told supporters who gathered at a restaurant just after 10 p.m. "But you know what? We have a general election to look ahead to."
The byelection in the previously Liberal seat of Cloverdale—Langley City comes roughly six months after former two-term Liberal MP John Aldag, who had represented the party in the seat from 2015 to 2019 and then from 2021, resigned to run for the B.C. NDP in the provincial election.
Aldag lost to Harman Bhangu of the B.C. Conservatives in the Oct. 19 vote.
It is the third byelection loss for the Trudeau government in 2024, having already lost two long-held seats in byelections earlier this year.
Fleischer, a local business owner and community leader, had faced questions from a local Métis community organization about her claims to Indigenous heritage before the vote.
The NDP's Sharma, whose party described her as a mental health advocate and anti-racism activist, finished third.
The Greens, Libertarian Party and People's Party also ran candidates in the riding.
Voter information cards were not sent out to constituents because of the weeks-long Canada Post strike.
Turnout was 16 per cent — significantly down compared to previous federal byelections this year, which saw around a 40 per cent turnout.
2 previous byelection defeats
Monday's vote was the 11th federal byelection since the 2021 election.
This year, the Liberals suffered two humiliating byelection defeats when they lost their strongholds of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun and Toronto-St. Paul's to the Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives, respectively.
Cloverdale—Langley City covers an area of Surrey, B.C., as well as the entire City of Langley in suburban Metro Vancouver.
The 2021 census showed it had around 130,000 residents, and Elections Canada says there were 92,061 registered voters in the riding.
Campaigns in Cloverdale—Langley City have been closely fought in the previous two elections, with Aldag losing to Jansen by fewer than 1,500 votes in 2019, and winning by about 1,650 votes in 2021.
All three provincial ridings in Langley were won by the B.C. Conservatives in the October provincial election. The B.C. Conservatives have no official relationship with the federal Conservatives.
With files from Akshay Kulkarni and The Canadian Press