Byelection Planned for Jack Layton’s Riding

Byelection Planned for Jack Layton’s Riding
Omid Ghoreishi
2/8/2012
Updated:
2/8/2012

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced that a byelection will be held on March 19 in the riding of Toronto-Danforth that was formerly held by the late Jack Layton.

The NDP has chosen law professor Craig Scott as their candidate to take over the popular NDP leader’s seat in Parliament.

The Conservative Party’s candidate is communications specialist Andrew Keyes, while the Green Party has voted to return climate change critic Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu as their candidate in the byelection. The Liberal Party has yet to choose a candidate.

The byelection will be held ahead of the NDP leadership race that is set to take place on March 24.

The ethnically diverse Toronto-Danforth riding has been historically represented by the NDP and the Liberals. Before Layton, who was voted as the riding’s MP in 2004, the riding was represented by Liberal Dennis Mills.

The region was also once represented by current Liberal Party Interim Leader Bob Rae.