A by-election was held in the federal riding of

Burnaby South Burnaby South (french: Burnaby-Sud) is a federal electoral district in British Columbia. It encompasses a portion of British Columbia previously included in the electoral districts of Burnaby—Douglas and Burnaby—New Westminster. Burnaby ...

on February 25, 2019 following the resignation of incumbent New Democratic MP Kennedy Stewart on September 14, 2018.

Jagmeet Singh Jagmeet Singh Jimmy Dhaliwal ( ; born January 2, 1979) is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) since 2017. Singh has sat as the member of Parliament (MP) for Burnaby South since 2019.NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National Deve ...

since October 1, 2017, won the by-election after having served as his party's leader without a seat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

for over a year.

Background

Riding profile

The riding of

was created by the 2012 federal electoral boundaries redistribution and was first contested in the 2015 federal election.

Demographics

According to the 2016 Canadian Census, Chinese Canadians make up a plurality of the riding's population, while a majority of the riding's population speaks a mother tongue that is neither English nor French.

Resignation of Kennedy Stewart

On May 10, incumbent MP Kennedy Stewart publicly revealed that he was considering a run for mayor of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

in the city's

2018 elections The following elections are scheduled to occur in 2018. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. Africa *2018 Djiboutian parliamentary election 23 February 2018 *2018 Sierra Leonean general elect ...

. Stewart formally confirmed his candidacy for Vancouver mayor on May 14, announcing that he would resign his seat in

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

before the election.

Candidate nominations

Conservative

Liberal

NDP

People's

The People's Party of Canada announced Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson as their party's candidate for the by-election on January 8, 2019. She had previously been a host on the Canadian edition of ''

The 700 Club ''The 700 Club'' is the flagship television program of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing each weekday in syndication in the United States and available worldwide on CBN.com. The news magazine program features live guests, daily news, con ...

'' and had earlier run to be a trustee on the Burnaby Board of Education in November of the previous year.

Independent candidacies

Valentine Wu, who was the

BC Greens The Green Party of British Columbia, often simply called the BC Greens, is a provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1983 and is based in Victoria. The party won its first seat in the Legislative Assembly of Bri ...

candidate in the 2017 provincial election for the riding of

Burnaby-Edmonds Burnaby-Edmonds is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. Geography The district is located in southern Burnaby, British Columbia. It is bordered by Boundary Road to the east, Imperial and Ma ...

, announced on January 17, 2019 that he would contest the by-election.

Non-contesting parties

The

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

had previously promised not to run a candidate against Jagmeet Singh if he were to run in a by-election. Green Party Leader

Elizabeth May Elizabeth Evans May (born June 9, 1954) is a Canadian politician, environmentalist, author, activist, and lawyer who is serving as the leader of the Green Party of Canada since 2022, and previously served as the leader from 2006 to 2019. S ...

reiterated the party's plans to give Singh "leader's courtesy" on August 16 after he announced his candidacy. Although the Libertarian Party had announced on its blog the selection of Rex Brocki as their candidate, he did not register and ultimately did not appear on the ballot.

Results

References

{{By-elections to the 42nd Canadian Parliament 2019 elections in Canada Burnaby_South_federal_by-election Federal by-elections in British Columbia Politics of Burnaby