Despite all the close votes over the years, this is a first:
Election result in Toronto riding thrown out by judge
Conservative MP Ted Opitz’s 2011 federal election win last year in Etobicoke Centre was declared null and void today in a challenge by former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj.
Opitz won the May 2011 election by 26 votes, but Wrzesnewskyj challenged the results over voting irregularities.
Justice Thomas Lederer’s decision Friday in Toronto, if appealed, would be immediately heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Wrzesnewskyj’s lawyer argued up to 181 ballots were in dispute.
We can safely assume this will be appealed, but if the ruling is upheld, Harper would have 6 months to call a by-election – and you can make the case he’d be morally obliged to call it ASAP, given the circumstances. While the stakes won’t be as high as in Kitchener-Waterloo, a Wrzesnewskyj–Opitz rematch would still be must-see TV.
One response to “Rematch in Etobicoke Centre”
[…] six months to call a by-election in Calgary Centre, and one assumes it will get rolled up with the Etobicoke Centre re-vote, should the Supreme Court uphold the original ruling. In some respects, Richardson’s resignation […]