Ontario Liberal panel rejects Erskine-Smith’s appeal of nomination vote
Written by The Canadian Press on May 24, 2026
TORONTO — The Ontario Liberals have rejected an appeal launched by MP Nate Erskine-Smith after he lost a nomination contest earlier this month.
Erskine-Smith was vying to represent the provincial party in the upcoming Scarborough Southwest byelection but did not win the party’s nomination, with members instead selecting Ahsanul Hafiz.
Erskine-Smith appealed to the party’s arbitration panel, alleging irregularities that included 34 more ballots counted than the number of recorded voters, as well as people who couldn’t state their address or claimed to have “just lost” their driver’s licence.
The arbitration’s panel’s decision, released late Sunday, finds that Hafiz is the “true winner” of the nomination vote.
The panel says the discrepancy of 34 ballots that Erskine-Smith raised was not evidence of voting irregularities, but was instead an error in record keeping, due to failures to cross voters’ names off the list.
Erskine-Smith had said he wanted to run in Scarborough Southwest ahead of an intended bid for the party’s leadership, but now says that is “much less likely” after he failed to secure the nomination.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 24, 2026.
Allison Jones, The Canadian Press