Conservative Leader Pierre PoilieAZvre speaks to supporters after the April 28 election, in Ottawa on April 29, 2025. Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
Prime Minister Mark Carney has called a byelection in the Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot, where Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is expected to run as a candidate.
The byelection will take place in the rural riding on Aug. 18, Carney’s office said in a June 30 statement.
An election campaign must be at least 37 days and no longer than 51 days, according to electoral law. The byelection campaign in Battle River-Crowfoot will last nearly the maximum length. This will not affect the potential timing of Poilievre’s return to the House of Commons because MPs are currently on their summer break, with the House scheduled to reconvene on Sept. 15.
Battle River-Crowfoot Tory MP Damien Kurek announced he would step down to allow Poilievre to return to the Commons shortly after the April 28 election.
Carney said on May 2 he would announce the date of the byelection once Kurek’s resignation was final, noting that he would hold the byelection as soon as possible and not delay holding one in order to play political “games.”
Kurek formally resigned his seat on June 17 paving the way for the summer byelection.
The riding of Battle River-Crowfoot is one of the safest in the country for Poilievre. Kurek won his seat in a landslide with 82.8 percent of the votes in the last election, while the Liberal candidate trailed behind with 11.7 percent.
When resigning, Kurek said Poilievre was a “man of principle, character, and is the hardest working MP I have ever met,” and that the Tory leader would be a benefit to the people of his riding. Poilievre previously thanked the MP for his “selfless act” in resigning his seat, and said he would work to earn the trust of constituents of the riding.
Kurek, who was first elected in 2019, would have been eligible to receive his MP pension had he stayed in the role until October.
Poilievre lost in Ontario’s Carleton riding during the April 28 election, a seat he had held since 2004. Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy won 50.6 percent of the vote, while Poilievre won 46.1 percent.
The votes in the riding took longer to count than in previous elections due to an electoral reform group called the Longest Ballot Committee, which targeted the riding with dozens of candidates to raise awareness for their cause of electoral reform. The official results were not known until the morning of April 29.
The Longest Ballot Committee has since announced plans to field 200 candidates in the upcoming Battle River-Crowfoot byelection.
The Liberals secured re-election in the spring vote with a minority government of 169 seats. The Tories won 144 seats, the Bloc Québécois won 22 seats, the New Democrats won seven seats, and the Green Party won a single seat.
Poilievre told reporters during a May 28 press conference that he would “love” to be back in the House of Commons and that it is a “great place.” He said he had “never really been a spectator of the House” and was working hard to earn the opportunity to be an MP again.
Former Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has taken over the role of Opposition Leader in the House in Poilievre’s absence. Scheer served as leader from 2017 until 2020 and stepped down in August of that year.
Poilievre will face a leadership review in early 2025. The Conservative Party recently voted again to adopt the Reform Act, allowing it to ask for a secret-ballot vote to review its party leadership. That power was used to remove Erin O’Toole as party leader in early 2022.
Noé Chartier is a senior reporter with the Canadian edition of The Epoch Times. Twitter: @NChartierET
Matthew Horwood is a reporter based in Ottawa.