Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
A complaint alleging voting irregularities during a tense Ontario Liberal nomination meeting in Scarborough has been dismissed by a party arbitration committee.
Federal Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith launched the appeal earlier this month after narrowly losing the nomination in Scarborough-Southwest to entrepreneur Ahsanul Hafiz by 19 votes. Erskine-Smith levelled a series of allegations over the way voting was conducted, saying that there were 34 ballots recorded than registered voters.
In a 17-page decision, the three-member arbitration committee said it found no irregularities in conduct of the nomination meeting that affected the result or called the vote integrity into question.
“We are satisfied that the party’s rules were followed and that Ahsanul Hafiz was the true winner of the vote,” the panel wrote. “The appeal is dismissed.”
WATCH | Erskine-Smith appeals Ontario Liberal nomination loss, alleging ‘irregularities’:
Erskine-Smith appeals Ontario Liberal nomination loss, alleging ‘irregularities’
Ontario Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith is appealing the results of the Ontario Liberal nomination in the riding of Scarborough Southwest after raising questions about the process, calling for a ‘full investigation.’ Power & Politics asks Erskine-Smith about the irregularities he’s alleging, and about his plans to step down as a federal MP.
Panel finds ‘error of record keeping’ in vote difference
The panel, made up of former cabinet minister David Zimmer and party members Adam Goldenberg and Jennifer Norman held a hearing investigating Erskine-Smith’s complaint last Wednesday.
The committee concluded that the discrepancy between the number of ballots counted and registered voters was an “error of record keeping” and not an irregularity.
“The far more plausible inference from all the evidence is that as many as 34 ballots were cast by eligible voters whose names should have been, but were not, crossed off the voters list,” the panel wrote.
Erskine-Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ontario Liberal Party President Kathryn McGarry thanked the committee, and urged the party to come together.
“Political parties are an integral part of our democracy, and we have a responsibility to hold ourselves to the highest standards,” she said in a statement. “Now is the time to come together to defeat Doug Ford in Scarborough Southwest.”
Interim Ontario Liberal Leader John Fraser speaks during a news conference at Queen’s Park on Aug. 31, 2023. (Alex Lupul/CBC)
Interim party leader says party was committed to ‘transparent process’
The party’s interim leader John Fraser had said in the aftermath of the nomination meeting that he stood behind the process and 50 volunteers who had administered the vote. On Sunday night, he said the party was committed to an “open and transparent process.”
“Now that the arbitration committee dismissed this appeal, our focus is the voters of Scarborough Southwest,” he said in a statement. “They have an important decision ahead, and we will work hard to earn their trust.”
The bitter nomination fight could also have implications for the party’s latest leadership race, which is still in its early stages and ahead of a final vote in November.
Erskine-Smith finished a strong second in the 2023 leadership race behind winner and now former party leader Bonnie Crombie. He’s made no secret that he planned to seek the leadership again, and that he wanted to win a seat at Queen’s Park to help bolster that bid. But his defeat in the nomination race throws his candidacy into question.
He has not said if he still intends to seek the party’s leadership following the loss in the nomination vote.
Criticism over the race has also been directed at the party from outside of its membership. Premier Ford took a shot at the Liberals over the controversy earlier this month.
“I find it amazing,” he told the Globe and Mail. “The Liberals can’t even run a nomination and they want to run the government?”
Party insiders have said the internal fight has come at an unhelpful time for the provincial Liberals have started to gain traction in public opinion polls against Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.
Those surveys have put the Liberals and Ford’s PCs in a statistical tie for the first time in years as the unpopular purchase of a private jet has dogged the government.
The Ontario Liberal Party has finished third in three straight elections after a devastating defeat in 2018 that left them with only seven seats and without official party status. But the Liberals made gains in the 2025 provincial election, increasing their share of the popular vote, capturing 14 seats, regaining official party status and the resources that come with it.
