Trudeau Liberals take both Toronto ridings in byelection amid Green and Tory gains

The Trudeau Liberals have managed to hold on to their two Greater Toronto Area ridings in yesterday's byelection, made vacant by disgraced former Finance Minister Bill Morneau, and York Centre MP Michael Levitt's departures.

Former CTV broadcaster Marci Ien managed to win her riding with 42 percent of the vote, beating out newly-crowned Green Leader Annamie Paul, who rounded up an impressive 32.7 percent of the vote.

The pandemic election was called "cynical" and "opportunistic" by Paul, as only 25,203 votes were cast in the riding—or just 30.96 percent of registered voters.

“Everyone that wants to know what is the independent progressive option, you know in politics today, it is the Green Party who is going to show up, even in the middle of a pandemic, and make sure that there is a real option for real representation that is going to put people first,” said Paul.

The York Centre riding, however, is where most interest was focused. While York Centre was considered a Liberal safe seat, candidate Ya'ara Saks beat Conservative candidate Julius Tiangson at a margin of just 8,253 votes to 7,552.

Notably, People's Party candidate and former Conservative MP Maxime Bernier finished fourth with a total of 642 votes. NDP candidate Andrew Vasquez Jimenez finished with 1,046 votes.

Voter turnout again was low, at just 25.64 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot.