Liberals retain Newfoundland seat in one of four federal byelections

The Liberals have easily retained a safe seat in Newfoundland and Labrador, one of four ridings in which federal byelections are being held tonight. (Photo: Churence Rogers/Facebook)

OTTAWA—The Liberals have easily retained a safe seat in Newfoundland and Labrador, one of four ridings in which federal byelections are being held tonight.

With 165 of 261 polls reporting, Liberal contender Churence Rogers has captured 68.5 per cent of the vote in Bonavista-Burin-Trinity — 45 percentage points ahead of his nearest competitor, Conservative Mike Windsor.

The riding, left vacant after the retirement of cabinet minister Judy Foote, is the safest Liberal seat in the country. Foote won the largest margin of victory in the country during the 2015 election, taking a whopping 81.8 per cent of the vote.

Polls have not yet closed in the other three ridings: Toronto’s Scarborough-Agincourt, Saskatchewan’s Battlefords-Lloydminster and British Columbia’s South Surrey-White Rock.

The Saskatchewan riding is a safe Conservative seat and the Toronto riding is a safe Liberal seat; neither is expected to change hands tonight.

But the Liberals are trying to wrest the B.C. seat from the Conservatives.

South Surrey-White Rock was left vacant after Conservative MP Diane Watts resigned to run for the leadership of the B.C. Liberals. Watts, a high-profile former mayor of Surrey, narrowly won the seat in 2015 with 44 per cent of the vote, less than 1,500 votes ahead of the Liberal contender.

This time, the Liberals are running former White Rock mayor and B.C. MLA Gordie Hogg against Conservative Kerry-Lynne Findlay, a former Harper-era cabinet minister who represented a neighbouring riding for one term before being defeated in the 2015 election.

Scarborough-Agincourt was left vacant by the untimely death of Liberal MP Arnold Chan, who won almost 52 per cent of the vote in 2015. His widow, Jean Yip, is running to succeed him and is expected to hold the seat for the Liberals.

Battlefords-Lloydminster was left vacant following the retirement of veteran Conservative MP Gerry Ritz, who had held the riding for 20 years. Rosemarie Falk, legislative assistant to Saskatchewan MP Arnold Vierson, is expected to hold the seat for the Tories.