Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith has filed a notice of appeal with the Ontario Liberal Party after losing the provincial nomination race for the Scarborough Southwest byelection on Saturday.
Ontario Liberal members in the riding selected business owner Ahsanul Hafiz as their candidate for the upcoming byelection.
Erskine-Smith, who represents the neighbouring federal riding of Beaches-East York, had indicated he was hoping to run in the provincial Scarborough Southwest byelection to secure a seat in the legislature ahead of a likely bid for the Ontario Liberal leadership.
It is unclear if Erskine-Smith still intends to launch that leadership bid.
On Saturday, Erskine-Smith indicated he planned to challenge the nomination, saying he lost by 19 votes out of more than 1,400 votes cast.
“There was a ton of scrutineers in there, lots of stories about what’s happened inside, but I’ve got to debrief,” he said Saturday. “I’ve spoken to a few scrutineers already who said they’ve never seen anything like it, and it’s unreal what happened in there.”
He suggested there was a large number of voters with “ID issues,” though Erskine-Smith’s chief scrutineers signed off on all the results.
Premier Doug Ford has yet to announce a date for the Scarborough Southwest byelection, which must be held before August. The PCs have yet to nominate a candidate, while Fatima Shaban will look to keep the seat in the NDP’s hands.
Meanwhile, the Ontario Liberal leadership race has two official contestants – caucus member and former hospital president Lee Fairclough, and strategist and former political staffer Dylan Marando.
Others are also exploring potential bids, including former federal cabinet minister Navdeep Bains, caucus member Rob Cerjanec, and housing advocate Eric Lombardi, the interim leader has said.