Nate Erskine-Smith, seen campaigning in Scarborough Southwest on Thursday, lost his bid to represent the Ontario Liberals in the riding.Arlyn McAdorey/The Globe and Mail
Nate Erskine-Smith lost his bid for the Ontario Liberal nomination in the east Toronto riding of Scarborough Southwest, a contest that was seen as critical to his plan to run for leader of the provincial party.
Saturday’s result means the status of his potential leadership run is now unclear.
Ahsanul Hafiz, owner of 30 Domino’s Pizza stores and vice-chair of the federal Liberal Party in Ontario, beat Mr. Erskine-Smith and two other candidates to win the nomination.
The results were close: Mr. Erskine-Smith confirmed to reporters that he lost by 19 votes.
Mr. Erskine-Smith, in a rainy scrum with reporters after the vote, said he would speak with his team about the results. He said scrutineers in the voting room told him they had “never seen anything like it,” and that he would talk to his team to see if there is a legitimate reason to challenge the results.
“I have to do a full, full debrief with them before I decide next steps. Before I decide if I really consider the outcome fair,” he said.
Speaking to reporters after the results, Mr. Hafiz said he believed the process was fair and that the party ran the nomination race properly.
“I cannot speak for Nate. I’m very excited. I want to share this moment with my community,” he said.
“We just won, and I’m the candidate right now, and that’s it.”
Ahsanul Hafiz, vice-chair of the federal Liberal Party in Ontario, triumphed in Saturday's nomination contest.Arlyn McAdorey/The Globe and Mail
The contest drew a significant amount of attention because of the wide-ranging implications for the Ontario Liberal leadership race. The nomination contest was seen as a must-win for Mr. Erskine-Smith, currently a federal Liberal MP, before he launched his bid for the provincial party’s leadership.
Leading up to the vote, Mr. Erskine-Smith was tight-lipped about his future plans if he were to lose. In his final pitch to voters, Mr. Erskine-Smith billed himself as the best person to stop Premier Doug Ford, and bring “smart, fair and honest” leadership back to Ontario.
The stakes were raised Friday evening when Mr. Erskine-Smith released a video alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney. Standing next to each other, Mr. Carney said it “hurts” that Mr. Erskine-Smith was leaving for provincial politics but that he’ll be working for the people of Scarborough on “making lives better.”
A line of voters snaked through a local Scarborough high school on Saturday as members of the party cast their ballots, ranking their choices for preferred candidate. Supporters for the candidates stood outside, holding signs and sharing flyers, which in some cases suggested who to mark as second and third choices.
As voting ended, supporters broke into chants of “Hafiz” as some shouted “Nate” in the crowded halls of the high school.
The Scarborough Southwest seat was vacated in February when former longtime Ontario NDP deputy leader Doly Begum stepped down to run for the federal Liberals. Mr. Ford is expected to call the by-election in Scarborough Southwest sometime this summer. The Ontario Liberals, who have placed third in the riding for three consecutive elections, are hoping to win it back from the NDP.
Interim Ontario Liberal Leader John Fraser said Saturday that no matter who wins the nomination, the party has to come together to win the by-election.
“We’ve had tough times, and we’ve had conflict like any other party has, but we stick together. That’s how I know that we’ll be successful,” he said.
Former NDP MPP Doly Begum vacated the Scarborough Southwest provincial seat when she decided to run for the federal Liberals and was elected to the House of Commons in April.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
The Liberal nomination race focused primarily on Mr. Erskine-Smith’s ties to the area and whether he was using the race solely as a launching pad for his leadership. He was also questioned about why he remained as a federal MP while campaigning provincially.
Mr. Erskine-Smith said he had many connections to the Scarborough riding, which neighbours his federal seat in Beaches-East York. He said he had been asked to stay on as an MP by Mr. Carney, because the government was until recently in a minority situation, and he didn’t want to abandon the federal team.
The race was rife with accusations of wrongdoing.
The party said about 1,800 memberships were not counted in the final voters list because of invalid entries and duplication. Mr. Erskine-Smith argued the party’s membership process disenfranchised longtime Liberal voters, predominantly seniors, because it required an e-mail and a two-step validation. He also questioned why temporary residents could vote in the contest, when others could not.
The Ontario Liberal Party repeatedly said it ran a fair and free nomination race.
Erskine-Smith’s campaign pushes back on Ontario Liberal Party membership rejections
Mr. Hafiz, Mr. Erskine-Smith’s closest rival, had to answer for social media posts from 2013 that showed him posing with guns and calling for the death penalty of a former Bangladeshi politician, which he said were not reflective of his character.
Mr. Hafiz settled in Scarborough from Bangladesh as an international student more than 20 years ago. After living in London, Ont., he moved back to the area with his wife and two children, and talked of his connection to grassroots members. He said he was focused on affordability and jobs for youth.
The other candidates in the race were lawyer Qadira Jackson, who ran for the party in the 2025 provincial election, and Mahmuda Nasrin, a community workers who has lived in the riding for 20 years.
Ms. Jackson, who was Mr. Erskine-Smith’s harshest critic in the race, said the community shouldn’t be used as a stepping stone to leadership, and billed herself as an advocate with strong community ties. Ms. Nasrin also spoke about the need to speed up credentials for immigrants who come to Canada.
Leading up to the race, Mr. Hafiz and Ms. Jackson had asked their supporters mark them as first and second choice on the ranked ballot in order to block Mr. Erskine-Smith’s candidacy.
The Ontario Liberals will select their new leader on Nov. 21. Two candidates have formally entered the race: Dylan Marando, a former political staffer, and Liberal MPP Lee Fairclough, a former hospital president. A second Liberal MPP, Rob Cerjanec, is also expected to enter the race.
Another potential big-name leadership contender, former federal cabinet minister Navdeep Bains, is said to be strongly considering a bid. Mr. Bains recently departed his high-profile job at Rogers Communications.