Murray Wood: A call to prayer results in a call to controversy
Murray Wood says a Regina mosque's weekly call to prayer is creating a real-life Venn diagram of religious freedom, back...
TORONTO — Ontario voters in three ridings are set to head to the polls Sept. 3 in a group of byelections that could include some tight races.
Premier Doug Ford called byelections Wednesday in Scarborough Southwest, York-Simcoe and Hamilton East-Stoney Creek.
Much of the early attention has been on Scarborough Southwest, where candidates are in place for all three major parties and campaigns are in full swing. The seat has been vacant since February, when Doly Begum resigned the seat she held for the NDP to successfully run for the federal Liberals.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles was there earlier Wednesday and said there are thousands of signs up already for their candidate.
“Byelections are not won on television,” she said. “Byelections are won on the doorsteps, so we are going to be working very hard to hold Scarborough Southwest with our amazing candidate Fatima Shaban, who’s a relentless fighter for our community.”
Begum won the riding for the NDP with comfortable margins in the last three provincial elections. Before that, it was held by the Liberals for 15 years, but the party finished third there in the 2025 general election.
Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser has acknowledged the party faces an uphill battle in Scarborough Southwest.
“It’s a lot of work for us,” he said last month. “It’s like starting from scratch. Our candidate (Ahsanul) Hafiz has been out there working hard, knocking on doors, and lots of Liberals have been out.”
The riding became a flashpoint for the Liberals after former MP Nate Erskine-Smith failed to win the party’s nomination for the provincial byelection and made accusations of impropriety in the race, which the party said were unsubstantiated.
The Progressive Conservatives have chosen family physician Dr. Noor Tarun as their candidate in Scarborough Southwest. The party currently holds four of the five other Scarborough ridings.
A byelection will also be held in York-Simcoe, which was vacated in June with the resignation of Caroline Mulroney, who served in cabinet as president of the Treasury Board.
The Tories are expected to easily hold that riding, where Mulroney and her predecessor Julia Munro won with wide margins over many elections. Susan Lahey, an East Gwillimbury town councillor, will run for the Progressive Conservatives. Naomi Davison, a councillor in Georgina and York Region, is the Liberal candidate and education worker Bobby Nikmard will run for the NDP.
The resignation of another cabinet minister, Minister of Sport Neil Lumsden, triggered the byelection in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek.
The NDP has typically performed well in Hamilton, but the Progressive Conservatives have made inroads in recent years. The New Democrats hope Lumsden’s resignation provides them with an opportunity to win back one of the Hamilton ridings.
They are putting their faith in a familiar face. Monique Taylor, who represented the neighbouring riding of Hamilton Mountain for the NDP in the legislature for 14 years, is their byelection candidate in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek.
She did not seek re-election in 2025, instead running for the federal NDP in Hamilton Mountain, where she placed a distant third.
Hamilton city Coun. Jeff Beattie is the Progressive Conservative candidate and Heino Doessing, who works in finance, is running for the Liberals.
Ford will also have to fill the cabinet posts of Mulroney and Lumsden, as well as Stan Cho, who resigned last month as minister of tourism, culture and gaming amid an expense scandal, though he remains in the Progressive Conservative caucus.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5, 2026.
Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
