Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine Smith makes his way to caucus on Parliament Hill, on Feb 4.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
The Ontario Liberal Party has rejected about a third of the membership applications it received for its high-stakes nomination contest in the Toronto riding of Scarborough Southwest, citing concerns about duplicate names and invalid entries.
The removal of more than 1,800 memberships from the final voters’ list prompted outcry from Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith’s campaign, which said the party could be disenfranchising potential voters.
The nomination battle is a crucial test for Mr. Erskine-Smith, one of four people vying to be the next provincial candidate in a yet-to-be called byelection. Mr. Erskine-Smith is also expected to run for leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, and winning the Scarborough nomination is viewed as the first step in his plan to lead the party.
The Ontario Liberals have been without a leader since January, when former leader Bonnie Crombie formally resigned. The party has struggled to regain power since losing government to Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives in 2018, remaining in third place in the legislature and cycling through two leaders.
Party members will select the next Ontario Liberal candidate for Scarborough Southwest at a nomination meeting on Saturday at a local high school.
A total of 3,581 people are currently on the draft eligible membership list, according to a statement Tuesday from Kathryn McGarry, president of the Ontario Liberal Party.
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But 1,806 membership applications were removed from the list due to duplicate or invalid entries, Ms. McGarry said. Of those applications, 541 were duplicates, while 1,265 were declared invalid.
Mr. Erskine-Smith’s campaign is pushing back against the removals. Spokesperson Alex Spears said the campaign is concerned about the 1,265 memberships deemed invalid, which make up about a quarter of the total applications the party has received.
Mr. Spears blamed the party’s new two-step email verification process as the reason a bulk of the memberships were rejected and called on the party to allow those applicants to vote.
“A party in need of grassroots renewal and rebuilding shouldn’t be making it harder than necessary for members to vote,” Mr. Spears said in a statement.
“These members deserve every opportunity to cast a ballot, and the party will owe them an explanation if they show up Saturday and can’t vote.”
Mr. Spears said the campaign is concerned about “people being unfairly disenfranchised, regardless of who they’re supporting,” adding that the removals show “serious flaws” with how the party is vetting voters.
He declined to provide specific numbers for how many members Mr. Erskine-Smith’s campaign signed up.
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In a statement, interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said the party has been clear that it will run a fair and open nomination.
“As part of any large membership drive, there are always duplicate or incomplete submissions that need to be reviewed. Our nomination rules are there to protect the integrity of the process, and they’ve been applied consistently and fairly to all candidates,” he said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has until the summer to call a byelection in Scarborough Southwest, after the seat was vacated by former Ontario NDP deputy leader Doly Begum, who was recently elected as a federal Liberal MP.
There are four candidates vying for the Liberal nomination, and some have criticized Mr. Erskine-Smith for running in the race because he’s still a federal MP and doesn’t live in the riding. Mr. Erskine-Smith, however, has said he has deep roots in the area as a representative of neighbouring Beaches-East York.
Qadira Jackson, a local lawyer and former social worker, is also vying for the nomination. Ms. Jackson ran in the same riding for the Ontario Liberals in the 2025 general election and finished third.
She said about 400 members signed up by her campaign are not on the final voting list. She said her team has also pushed back on the removals and was told that people could show up Saturday with extra identification to challenge the decision.
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Ms. Jackson suggested some of the rejected memberships could have been removed by the party because they were signed up in bulk or with IP addresses that are not local. But she said her campaign signed people up locally.
“I did it the hard way at the doors,” she said.
She echoed the concerns about the two-step email verification process, saying some people didn’t realize they had to go through various steps online.
The campaign manager for Ahsanul Hafiz, another nomination candidate and business owner who operates 30 Domino’s Pizza stores across Ontario, said his team noticed a few members missing from the final voters’ list and have flagged them to the party for review.
“We look forward to working with the party to resolve any outstanding questions about our list so that every eligible member can participate,” said a statement attributed to campaign manager Ted Lojko.
Mahmuda Nasrin, a community worker and teacher who is also vying for the nomination, said her campaign tried to sign up more than 3,000 people as members but was told by the party at least 500 are ineligible.
The Ontario NDP has nominated former federal candidate Fatima Shaban to run in Scarborough Southwest, while the Progressive Conservatives have yet to name their candidate.
The Ontario Liberals are set to choose their new leader on November 21.
Another potential big-name leadership contender, former federal cabinet minister Navdeep Bains, is said to be strongly considering a bid. Mr. Bains recently announced he would depart a high-profile job at Rogers Communications on May 8.