TORONTO – Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith faced a setback in his political journey on Saturday, as he lost a provincial nomination race, marking the first of several challenges in his pursuit of leading the Ontario Liberals.
Ontario Liberal members from the Scarborough Southwest riding chose business owner Ahsanul Hafiz to be their candidate for an upcoming byelection.
Erskine-Smith, who serves the nearby federal riding of Beaches-East York, had expressed interest in running for the provincial seat in Scarborough Southwest to secure a place in the legislature ahead of what seemed to be a potential leadership run within the Ontario Liberals.
It remains uncertain whether Erskine-Smith will still pursue that leadership opportunity. Nonetheless, he is considering contesting Hafiz’s narrow victory-Erskine-Smith mentioned losing by just 19 votes out of over 1,400 ballots cast.
“There were plenty of scrutineers present and numerous stories about what occurred inside, but I need to have a debrief,” he stated while standing in the rainy school parking lot where voting took place after initially trying to avoid reporters.
“I’ve already talked to some scrutineers who claimed they had never witnessed anything like it; it’s unbelievable what went down.”
He pointed out that there seemed to be many voters facing “ID issues,” although Erskine-Smith’s chief scrutineers approved all results.
Hafiz responded by saying he didn’t want to dwell too much on Erskine-Smith’s claims, emphasizing that the hallways were filled with supporters wearing Hafiz badges.
“So that’s clear evidence of who truly won,” he remarked, adding that he believed the process was fair and that the Ontario Liberal Party did “an excellent job.”
Erskine-Smith had shared a last-minute video on social media showing him speaking with Prime Minister Mark Carney, who expressed hope that Erskine-Smith would continue working for Scarborough residents.
Some of Erskine-Smith’s fellow candidates felt uneasy about what they perceived as someone trying to leverage their community for personal gain regarding leadership ambitions. Hafiz and Qadira Jackson agreed to rank each other second on their ballots during this nomination race.
Jackson, who previously ran as the Liberal candidate for Scarborough Southwest in the 2025 provincial election, noted that typically past candidates don’t have to fight for nominations when looking to run again. She preferred remaining as this byelection’s candidate if she couldn’t win herself.
“I don’t want my riding used as a tool,” she said.
Erskine-Smith acknowledged comments regarding his residency outside Scarborough Southwest but pointed out that Hafiz hadn’t lived there for most of his life either.
Hafiz has spent much of his career based in London, Ont., running Domino’s Pizza stores but now resides in Scarborough, where he first arrived nearly 25 years ago.
Now he’ll need to focus on preparing for a byelection Premier Doug Ford is expected to call by summer within a riding where Liberals finished third during the last election.
“The game just started; what we played so far is like a semi-final,” he told supporters. “Now we’ve got to play final.”
The riding has been vacant since earlier this year when NDP member Doly Begum resigned after winning her federal seat with the Liberals.
The Ontario Liberal leadership race currently features two official candidates – caucus member and former hospital president Lee Fairclough and strategist Dylan Marando. Others are also looking into possible bids including former cabinet minister Navdeep Bains and caucus member Rob Cerjanec among others according to statements made by interim leaders.
The winner will take over from Bonnie Crombie who stepped down earlier this year and will become the party’s fourth leader since 2018.
This report by The Canadian Press was first May 9, 2026.
Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
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