{"id":41091,"date":"2026-05-11T22:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T22:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/41091\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T22:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T22:32:11","slug":"ontario-liberal-party-stands-by-results-in-scarborough-southwest-nomination-as-erskine-smith-weighs-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/41091\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario Liberal Party stands by results in Scarborough Southwest nomination, as Erskine-Smith weighs options"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Nate Erskine-Smith speaks to the media after losing the Ontario Liberal Party nomination in the riding of Scarborough Southwest on Saturday.Arlyn McAdorey\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The Ontario Liberal Party is standing by the results of its nomination contest in Scarborough Southwest as losing candidate Nate Erskine-Smith met with his team to discuss next steps after raising concerns about the race.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Liberal members in the east Toronto riding chose businessman Ahsanul Hafiz as their next provincial candidate in a yet-to-be-announced by-election, beating Mr. Erskine-Smith in a close contest. The nomination was seen as a critical step in Mr. Erskine-Smith\u2019s plan to run for leader of the Ontario Liberal party. He is currently a federal MP for the neighbouring riding of Beaches-East York. <\/p>\n

The stakes were raised even higher the night before the vote, when Mr. Erskine-Smith\u2019s team released a video with him alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney, who wished him well in provincial politics.<\/p>\n

In the end, Mr. Erskine-Smith lost the nomination by 19 votes. <\/p>\n

Mr. Erskine-Smith has been tight-lipped about his future plans if he were to lose the nomination. His spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday. <\/p>\n

Nate Erskine-Smith loses Ontario Liberal nomination in Scarborough, denting leadership hopes<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the party, Mr. Erskine-Smith has 72 hours, or until Tuesday night, to appeal.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters at Queen\u2019s Park on Monday, Mr. Hafiz \u2013 owner of 30 Domino\u2019s Pizza stores and vice-chair of the federal Liberal Party in Ontario \u2013 said Mr. Erskine-Smith has not spoken to him since the results were announced.<\/p>\n

He said his main focus now is on winning a by-election, which has yet to be called in the riding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have to paint that riding as red. That is our main focus,\u201d Mr. Hafiz said.<\/p>\n

After the results of Saturday\u2019s nomination were released, Mr. Erskine-Smith wouldn\u2019t say if he thought the results were fair. He said members of his scrutineering team told him they had \u201cnever seen anything like it,\u201d citing \u201cID issues\u201d of some voters, and that he would talk to his team to see if there was a legitimate reason to challenge the results.<\/p>\n

Leading up to the nomination, Mr. Erskine-Smith\u2019s team had also raised concerns about the more than 1,800 memberships that were not counted in the final voters\u2019 list because of invalid entries and duplication.<\/p>\n

His campaign argued that by disqualifying members, the party had disenfranchised voters, including seniors, who were not able to complete the party\u2019s new two-step validation process. He also questioned why temporary residents could vote in the contest, when others could not.<\/p>\n

Interim Ontario Liberal Leader John Fraser said Monday the party ran a fair and free contest. Two other candidates \u2013 lawyer Qadira Jackson and immigration consultant Mahmuda Nasrin \u2013 were also in the running.<\/p>\n

\u201cNominations are that close sometimes, and they\u2019re hard fought, they\u2019re inside the family. But the people of Scarborough Southwest spoke and they voted, and I\u2019m satisfied that it was a fair and open process,\u201d Mr. Fraser told reporters at Queen\u2019s Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we\u2019re really excited right now about getting on with the by-election and getting out there and knocking on doors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about Mr. Erskine-Smith\u2019s contentions that the race may not have been fair, Mr. Fraser said Mr. Erskine-Smith has to prove it.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say things in the heat of the moment, right? Because no one likes losing,\u201d Mr. Fraser said.<\/p>\n

The Scarborough Southwest seat was vacated in February when former longtime Ontario NDP deputy leader Doly Begum stepped down to run for the federal Liberals. Mr. Ford is expected to call the by-election in Scarborough Southwest sometime this summer. The Ontario Liberals, who have placed third in the riding for three consecutive elections, are hoping to win it back from the NDP.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, it is unclear whether Mr. Erskine-Smith will still run for leader of the Ontario Liberals.<\/p>\n

The party will select its new leader on Nov. 21. Two candidates have formally entered the race: Dylan Marando, a former political staffer, and Liberal MPP Lee Fairclough, a former hospital president. A second Liberal MPP, Rob Cerjanec, is also expected to run.<\/p>\n

Another potential big-name leadership contender, former federal cabinet minister Navdeep Bains, is said to be strongly considering a bid for Ontario Liberal leader. Mr. Bains recently departed his high-profile job at Rogers Communications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Nate Erskine-Smith speaks to the media after losing the Ontario Liberal Party nomination…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[164,224,238,214,212,239,17,211,230,231,227,213,210,235,171,234,143,222,249,215,216,229,225,226,219,240,220,244,245,247,242,246,94,243,217,142,233,113,232,241,223,236,237,228,221,218,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-41091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-technology","50":"tag-travel","51":"tag-trudeau","52":"tag-us-news","53":"tag-world-news","54":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}