Newly certified election results show the Liberal Party received as few as one or two votes at multiple polling stations during the December 16 byelection in Cloverdale-Langley City, a suburban British Columbia riding the party had previously held.
“It’s been an eventful day,” then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said after the defeat. “It has not been an easy day.” He acknowledged the challenges of an increasingly complex and unstable world, urging Canadians to stay united.
Blacklock's Reporter says the byelection was triggered by the resignation of Liberal MP John Aldag, former chair of the Commons indigenous affairs committee. Aldag stepped down to run as a New Democrat in the British Columbia legislature but was unsuccessful.
In the 2021 federal election, Liberals won 118 of 195 polls in Cloverdale-Langley City. Last December, they failed to win a single one. Conservative candidate Tamara Jansen, a former MP who served on the Commons finance committee, dominated the race with 66% of the vote, while Liberal support collapsed to 16%.
Certified returns revealed some polling stations where just one or two Liberal votes were cast, often attributed to party scrutineers. These included:
• One Liberal vote at poll 116 in Langley, at H.D. Stafford Secondary School
• Two Liberal votes at poll 114 in Langley, also at H.D. Stafford
• Two Liberal votes at poll 105 in Langley, also at H.D. Stafford
• Two Liberal votes at poll 140 in Langley, at Nicomeki Elementary
• Two Liberal votes at poll 8 in Surrey, at Goldstone Park Elementary
• Two Liberal votes at poll 88 in Surrey, at George Greenaway Elementary
Such low returns for a governing party are rare in suburban ridings but have occurred in rural Prairie districts. In Souris-Moose Mountain, Sask., where Conservative MP Robert Kitchen won 76% of the vote in 2021, six hamlets had no Liberal ballots.
Similar results were reported in Kola, Man., and Battle River-Crowfoot, Alta., where entire communities cast zero votes for the Liberals.
Cloverdale-Langley City was the third Liberal seat lost in a byelection last year. The party also lost Toronto-St. Paul’s to the Conservatives on June 24 — the first time that riding had flipped since 1988 — and LaSalle-Émard-Verdun in Montréal to the Bloc Québécois on September 16. Trudeau and 15 cabinet ministers personally campaigned in that race, previously held by Attorney General David Lametti.