Former BC Liberal Gordon Hogg Wins Dianne-Watts Held Conservative Seat In Surrey-White Rock As Liberals Take Three Of Four Byelections!
OTTAWA – Despite a sharp id Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approval rating, the federal Liberals keep winning byelections including safe Conservative seats.
The federal Liberals scored another byelection upset Monday, snatching the British Columbia riding of South Surrey-White Rock away from the Conservatives.
Gordie Hogg won the riding previously held by Dianne Watts who left to seek the BC Liberal leadership with 47 per cent of the vote, just five percentage points ahead of Conservative Kerry-Lynne Findlay, a former Harper-era cabinet minister who represented a neighbouring riding for one term before being defeated in 2015.
It’s the first time in 70 years that a Liberal has represented any portion of the riding, the boundaries of which have changed a number of times.
Hogg’s victory marks the second upset win for the governing Liberals in as many months. They stole a riding in Quebec’s nationalist heartland away from the Tories in a byelection in October.
For Andrew Scheer, the outcome marks the second byelection loss since he became Conservative leader in May. In three other federal byelections Monday, the Liberals retained safe seats in Newfoundland and Labrador and Toronto, while the Conservatives held onto one of their own safe seats in Saskatchewan.
The NDP ran a distant second in the riding Monday, as it did in 2015, scoring 13.2 per cent, just ahead of the Liberal, who took 10.4 per cent.
Monday’s byelections mark the second electoral test for Scheer and newly-minted NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. Neither fared particularly well in their first test in October. In all six byelections since Singh took the helm of the NDP in early October, the party has seen its share of the vote decline.
