Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a press conference on the sidelines of the 47th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Kuala Lumpur on October 27, 2025. (Photo by Arif Kartono / AFP)
Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced that byelections in the University-Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest ridings in Toronto, and the Terrebonne riding in Quebec, will be held on April 13.
The Prime Minister’s Office posted the announcement to its website on the morning of March 8.
If the Liberals win seats in all three ridings, it would bring the party’s seat count in the House of Commons to 172, the number of seats required to form a majority government.
The ridings of University-Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest are considered to be “safe” Liberal seats, while the Terrebonne riding is considered to be a “toss-up” between the Bloc Québécois and Liberals, according to poll aggregator 338 Canada.
The University-Rosedale riding in Toronto became vacant after former Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland stepped down from the riding in January, a few days after accepting a position as an adviser to the Ukrainian government.
The Liberal Party said in late January that family physician Danielle Martin will be the party’s candidate in the federal byelection for the University-Rosedale riding.
The Scarborough Southwest riding became vacant after Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Bill Blair resigned on Feb. 2, after Carney announced Blair’s appointment as Canada’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
The Liberals announced on Feb. 3 that Ontario New Democrat MPP Doly Begum will be their candidate for the riding.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Canada on Feb. 13 overturned the April 2025 election outcome in the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne, which required a byelection to be scheduled.
Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste was initially declared the winner in the riding by a single vote over Bloc MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné. The Bloc subsequently filed a legal challenge and asked the court to invalidate the results after reports emerged that a voter had their mail-in ballot supporting Sinclair-Desgagné sent back because of a misprint on the return envelope.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, Carney told reporters on Feb. 17 that a byelection in the Terrebonne riding would be held “soon,” while the byelections in the two Toronto ridings would be held this summer.
Elections Canada had said in January that the byelection for the University-Rosedale riding had to be announced between Jan. 20 and July 8. Byelections must be held on a Monday, with a minimum interval of 36 days and a maximum of 50 days from the date of the byelection announcement.
The Liberals currently hold 169 seats in the House of Commons, just three seats away from the 172 seats needed to form a majority government. This is despite three Conservative MPs crossing the floor to join the Liberals since late last year.
After former Conservative MPs Chris d’Entremont and Michael Ma crossed the floor to join the Liberals last year, the Liberal Party held 171 seats, which was only one seat away from being a majority government.
However, after Freeland and Blair resigned earlier this year, the party was down to 169 seats. In addition, the overturning of the Terrebonne seat brought the Liberals’ seat count down to 168 seats.
The Liberal Party’s seat count then jumped back up to 169 seats after Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux joined the Liberal Party on Feb. 18.
Elections Canada posted a news release on March 8 announcing the upcoming federal byelections, saying that the Elections Canada offices in all three ridings are now open.
Electors in the ridings can vote at their assigned polling stations on election day, April 13, or on advanced polling days from April 3 to April 6. Electors can also vote early at the Elections Canada offices in their respective ridings between now and April 7, or they can vote by mail, Elections Canada said.