2019 Burnaby South federal by-election explained

Candidate2:Richard T. Lee
Popular Vote2:5,919
Percentage2:26.02%
Swing2: 7.86pp
Swing1: 3.83pp
MP
Posttitle:Elected MP
Before Election:Kennedy Stewart
After Election:Jagmeet Singh
Percentage1:38.90%
Country:Canada
Type:Parliamentary
Ongoing:no
Party Colour:no
Party Name:no
Previous Election:2015 Canadian federal election
Previous Year:2015
Next Election:2019 Canadian federal election
Popular Vote1:8,848
Next Year:Oct. 2019
Seats For Election:Riding of Burnaby South
Turnout:30.10% (30.68pp)
Candidate1:Jagmeet Singh
Swing5:New party
Image4:

CPC

Popular Vote4:5,147
Swing4: 4.48pp
Percentage5:10.65%
Percentage4:22.63%
Popular Vote5:2,422
Candidate5:Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson
Candidate4:Jay Shin
Image5:

PPC

Map Size:300px

A by-election was held in the federal riding of Burnaby South on February 25, 2019 following the resignation of incumbent New Democratic MP Kennedy Stewart on September 14, 2018.

Jagmeet Singh, the federal leader of the NDP since October 1, 2017, won the by-election[1] after having served as his party's leader without a seat in the House of Commons for over a year.

Background

Riding profile

The riding of Burnaby South was created by the 2012 federal electoral boundaries redistribution and was first contested in the 2015 federal election.

Demographics

According to the 2016 Canadian Census, Chinese Canadians make up a plurality of the riding's population, while a majority of the riding's population speaks a mother tongue that is neither English nor French.[2]

Resignation of Kennedy Stewart

On May 10, incumbent MP Kennedy Stewart publicly revealed that he was considering a run for mayor of Vancouver in the city's 2018 elections.[3] Stewart formally confirmed his candidacy for Vancouver mayor on May 14, announcing that he would resign his seat in Parliament before the election.[4]

Candidate nominations

People's

The People's Party of Canada announced Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson as their party's candidate for the by-election on January 8, 2019.[5] She had previously been a host on the Canadian edition of The 700 Club and had earlier run to be a trustee on the Burnaby Board of Education in November of the previous year.[6]

Independent candidacies

Valentine Wu, who was the BC Greens candidate in the 2017 provincial election for the riding of Burnaby-Edmonds, announced on January 17, 2019 that he would contest the by-election.[7]

Non-contesting parties

The Green Party had previously promised not to run a candidate against Jagmeet Singh if he were to run in a by-election.[8] Green Party Leader Elizabeth May reiterated the party's plans to give Singh "leader's courtesy" on August 16 after he announced his candidacy.[9]

Although the Libertarian Party had announced on its blog the selection of Rex Brocki as their candidate,[10] he did not register and ultimately did not appear on the ballot.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Official Voting Results. www.elections.ca. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190611184759/https://elections.ca/res/rep/off/ovr_2019/49/table12E.html . 2019-06-11 . May 13, 2020.
  2. Web site: Census Profile, 2016 Census - Burnaby South [Federal electoral district], British Columbia and British Columbia [Province]]. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20200719160139/https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=FED&Code1=59003&Geo2=PR&Code2=59&SearchText=burnaby+south&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=Ethnic%20origin&TABID=1&type=0 . 2020-07-19 . July 5, 2020. Statistics Canada.
  3. Web site: NDP MP Kennedy Stewart mulls run for mayor of Vancouver. McElroy. Justin. May 7, 2018. CBC News. live. May 13, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20180508043307/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/kennedy-stewart-ndp-vancouver-mayor-1.4651581 . 2018-05-08 .
  4. Web site: Kennedy Stewart confirms he will run for mayor of Vancouver as independent. Laanela. Mike. May 10, 2018. CBC News. live. May 13, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20180511055533/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/kennedy-stewart-running-for-vancouver-mayor-1.4657199 . 2018-05-11 .
  5. Web site: Bernier's party taps anti-'trans agenda' activist as candidate in Burnaby-South. Cullen. Catherine. Tunney. Catharine. Jan 9, 2019. CBC News. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190109003459/https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/peoples-party-canada-bernier-tyler-thompson-1.4970112 . 2019-01-09 . May 28, 2020.
  6. Web site: Burnaby (School District) Election Results. bc.localelections.ca. 2020-05-29.
  7. Web site: Ex-B.C. Green candidate says he's running as a Burnaby South independent. Campbell. Chris. Burnaby Now. January 18, 2019 . 2020-05-27.
  8. Web site: NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh won't have a free pass if he runs in a byelection. Grenier. Éric. July 12, 2018. CBC News. live. May 13, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20180713044505/https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/grenier-singh-byelection-1.4742487 . 2018-07-13 .
  9. Web site: Greens won't run against NDP's Jagmeet Singh in Burnaby South byelection, Elizabeth May says. 2018-08-16. thestar.com. en. 2020-05-14.
  10. Web site: Upcoming By-Elections **UPDATE**. Libertarian Party of Canada. 2020-05-27.