Windsor Liberal who lost by 77 votes files for judicial recount

OTTAWA — A failed Liberal candidate in Windsor who lost to his Conservative rival by just 77 votes in last week’s federal election says he is filing for a judicial recount.

Irek Kusmierczyk, a Liberal incumbent who ran in Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, says in a social media post today that the “razor thin” margin of victory for the Conservative candidate is just seven votes short of Elections Canada’s threshold for triggering an automatic recount.

Kusmierczyk says in the post that counting errors can happen, and that Elections Canada found four errors in reports from local polling stations on election night.

He says that reduced the margin of the Conservative victory from 233 to 77 votes.

Elections Canada shows that Conservative candidate Kathy Borrelli took the riding with 32,062 votes, or 45.8 per cent of the vote.

Kusmierczyk, who won the seat in 2019 and 2021, this time netted 31,985 votes, or 45.7 per cent of the vote.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2025.

The Canadian Press