File photo.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a May byelection to fill a Vancouver Island seat vacated by a former New Democrat.
The Prime Minister’s Office has set May 6 as the date for the ballot for Nanaimo-Ladysmith.
The riding opened up when former New Democrat member of Parliament Sheila Malcolmson resigned on January 2nd to run successfully for the provincial New Democrats.
Malcolmson was one of several NDP MPs who decided not to run again in October’s federal election.
The list includes Victoria MP Murray Rankin, Alberta MP Linda Duncan, Ontario MPs Irene Mathyssen and David Christopherson, Quebec’s Helene Laverdiere, Romeo Saganash, Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet and Anne Minh-Thu Quach and B.C.’s Fin Donnelly.
Bob Chamberlin, a long-serving chief counsellor of a First Nation based on Gilford Island in the Broughton Archipelago off northeastern Vancouver Island, has said he intends to seek the NDP candidacy in Nanaimo-Ladysmith.
Former Nanaimo Port Authority Chair Michelle Corfield is the Liberal candidate, businessman John Hirst won the Conservative Party nomination, Paul Manly is running again for the Green Party, and Jennifer Clarke will represent the People’s Party.
The seat will be up for grabs again later in 2019 with a federal election to be held no later than October 21st.
Bill C76 passed in December established new rules for the timing of byelections, “to prevent the calling of a by-election when a vacancy in the House of Commons occurs within nine months before the day fixed for a general election.”
Malcolmson resigned on January 2nd, just beyond that 9 month limit, so Elections Canada announced that a byelection would have to be held in the riding.
with files from Canadian Press
Ben O'Hara
