Liberals win two Toronto-area byelections, securing majority government

“This is not a mandate to be quiet. It is not a mandate to take our time. It is a mandate to get to work.”

Carney congratulated Martin in a social media post.

“Danielle has spent her career building better public health care for Torontonians and all Canadians,” Carney said on X.

“Now she’s bringing her experience and determination to the House of Commons, and our country will be stronger for it.”

Doly Begum was projected to win in nearby Scarborough Southwest, the seat left vacant when former cabinet minister Bill Blair left politics to become Canada’s high commissioner in the U.K.

Begum surprised many when she left her seat in Queen’s Park as a member of the provincial NDP to run federally.

She also represents the growing Liberal tent that Carney has been building for the better part of six months, as he courted five opposition MPs to join the governing party — four from the Conservative benches and one from the federal New Democrats.

Wins in two ridings on Monday mean the government will soon be able to pass legislation in the House of Commons without the support of another party, something the Liberals have not been able to do since 2019. They will also be able to control House committees.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused Carney of spending a year on “a cynical power grab.”

“The Carney Liberals did not win a majority government through a general election or today’s byelections. Instead, it was won through backroom deals with politicians who betrayed the people who voted for them,” he said in a post on X.

The suburban riding of Terrebonne, near Montreal, featured a rematch between Liberal Tatiana Auguste and Bloc Québécois candidate Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné a year after it produced the closest result in the country in the last federal election.

After a judicial recount of the results from last April, Auguste won by a single vote. Sinclair-Desgagné challenged the results all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, which invalidated the results because of a clerical error on the return address for some mail-in ballots.

The Liberals dispatched their entire Quebec caucus and Carney himself to the riding to bolster support for Auguste.

Sinclair-Desgagné, who represented the riding for the Bloc between 2021 and 2025, said she fought hard to win the riding back and was congratulated at the doorstep for challenging the result in court.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 13, 2026.

by Sarah Ritchie/ The Canadian Press

Liberals win two Toronto-area byelections, securing majority government

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