Burnaby South by-election on February 25

PRIME Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday announced that by-elections will be held on February 25 in Burnaby South, B.C., Outremont, Quebec, and York–Simcoe, Ontario.

Just last week both Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who is seeking a seat in the House of Commons, had slammed Trudeau for playing political games with the by-elections.

The NDP’s  Kennedy Stewart won Burnaby South by just over 500 votes in the last election, but he vacated the seat to run for Vancouver’s mayorship. Jagmeet Singh decided to run from this riding, but had been growing increasingly frustrated as Trudeau kept delaying the by-election. Many saw this as Trudeau’s strategy to deny Jagmeet Singh the advantage of being able to engage in debates in the House of Commons and thus enhance his political image that has taken a severe beating after his election as the NDP party leader.

The Liberals nominated Karen Wang, who owns Angels Playhouse daycare, last month as their candidate from Burnaby South. Wang lost as a BC Liberal candidate in the 2017 provincial election.

Lawyer Jay Shin is the Conservatives’ candidate. The Green Party is not fielding a candidate  in the by-election.

Just this week, Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada announced the nomination of Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson, TV personality and inspirational speaker, as its candidate for Burnaby South. Thompson lost in last year’s Burnaby school board election.