OTTAWA — The Liberals suffered a crushing loss in the Cloverdale—Langley City, British Columbia byelection to close out an already nightmarish Monday for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Conservative Tamara Jansen will be returning to Ottawa as the riding’s MP after cruising to victory, beating Liberal runner-up Madison Fleischer by 50 points. Jansen previously held the seat from 2019 to 2021, before losing it to Liberal John Aldag.
The byelection loss comes on the heels of the shocking resignation of former finance minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday, who announced her decision on social media just hours before the government was set to unveil its fall economic statement. At a fundraiser on Monday evening, Trudeau called the day “eventful” and “not easy.”
The House of Commons will adjourn on Tuesday until the last week of January and the Liberals will gather for a holiday party on Tuesday evening. Trudeau is scheduled to give remarks at what promises to be one of the stranger gatherings in the party’s history.
The blowout Conservative win in the B.C. byelection marks a departure for the usually competitive Metro Vancouver riding, which was decided by less than five points in the last two elections.
It was also the Liberals’ fourth straight byelection loss, closing out a winless 2024 for the historically unpopular governing party.
Three of these losses, including last night’s, came in ridings that were last held by a Liberal MP.
Fleischer, a first-time Liberal candidate, was dogged by questions about her past claims to Indigenous heritage and was conspicuously absent from campaign photos posted by ex-B.C. premier Christy Clark.
Liberal Party officials were criticized for green-lighting Fleischer’s nomination on Nov. 10, while a scandal over similar ancestral claims made by then-cabinet minister Randy Boissonnault raged in Ottawa.
One silver-lining for the Liberals is that it was also a bad night for the NDP, which has failed to capitalize on the recent Liberal missteps.
NDP candidate Vanessa Sharma finished in a distant third with 12.5 per cent of the vote, seven points down from the party’s nominee in 2021.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh called on Trudeau to step down on Monday, after the surprise departure of Chrystia Freeland from cabinet, but wouldn’t commit to bringing down the prime minister in the next non-confidence vote.
Singh helped the Liberals survive three Conservative non-confidence motions in the fall sitting of the House of Commons, which ends on Tuesday.
National Post
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