Conservatives win B.C. federal byelection amid turmoil in Ottawa

By The Canadian Press on December 16, 2024.

Voters in the Liberal-held B.C. riding of Cloverdale - Langley City go to the polls today to pick a new member of parliament, in another test for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Supporters listen as Trudeau speaks during a Liberal Party fundraising event in Vancouver, on Nov. 8, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

LANGLEY, B.C. – The federal Conservatives won a byelection in the British Columbia riding of Cloverdale-Langley City, the latest blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.

Tamara Jansen is returning to Ottawa as MP for the riding which she last represented from 2019 to 2021.

Jansen won the byelection Monday on the same day Trudeau was in Ottawa facing calls to resign after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland stepped down from cabinet on the day she was to deliver a fall economic statement.

Jansen defeated five other people on the ballot including Liberal candidate Madison Fleischer and Vanessa Sharma, who was representing the NDP.

The byelection in the Liberal-held riding was a third test for the Trudeau government that lost two long-held seats in byelections elsewhere in Canada earlier this year.

Liberal John Aldag resigned his seat this summer to run in October’s provincial election for the NDP in Langley-Abbotsford, but he was defeated by a B.C. Conservative.

Cloverdale-Langley City has swung back and forth between the Liberals and the Conservatives over the last several federal elections.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2024.