2024 Toronto—St. Paul's federal by-election

The riding of Toronto—St. Paul's was vacated on January 16, 2024, following the resignation of Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett.^[4][5] Bennett, most recently the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health in the government of Justin Trudeau, had held the seat since 1997.^[6]

Toronto—St. Paul's is a safe Liberal^[7] seat in Midtown, Toronto. It has been held by the Liberals since the 1993 federal election.^[8]

Running for the Liberal nomination was Leslie Church, former chief of staff to Chrystia Freeland.^[9] She later received formal approval to run for Liberal nomination in Toronto—St. Paul’s in April 2024.^[10] She ran against Emma Richardson, a senior advisor with Global Affairs Canada’s United Nations division.^[11] The Liberal nomination was held on May 1 with Church winning the nomination.^[12][13]

Other prospective candidates for the Liberal nomination who declined to run, included former Toronto city councillor Josh Colle; former Ontario MPP Eric Hoskins, who represented the area provincially from 2009 to 2018 and previously served in the provincial cabinets of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne, including as Minister of Health and Long-Term Care from 2014 to 2018; and Toronto city councillor Josh Matlow, who has represented the area municipally since 2010; Matlow ultimately decided not to run.^[9][14][15] With his riding set to merge with Scarborough Centre at the next election, Don Valley East MP Michael Coteau was seen as a potential candidate, in order to avoid a nomination battle with fellow Liberal MP Salma Zahid; Coteau ultimately declined to run.^[14][16]

The Rhinoceros Party announced that Sean Carson would be the candidate on January 13.^[17]

The Conservative Party nominated Don Stewart on January 24. He works for the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization.^[18][19]

The NDP announced on April 17 that Amrit Parhar would be the candidate. She works as the Director of Programs at the Institute for Change Leaders, an organization that was founded by Toronto mayor, Olivia Chow.^[20] It was previously reported two days earlier by The Hill Times that MPP for Toronto—St. Paul's, Jill Andrew was considering seeking the nomination.^[21]

On May 17, the Centrist Party announced Ali Mohiuddin as their candidate.^[22]

On May 24, the Green Party announced that Christian Cullis, a constituent coordinator for Ward 11 city councillor Dianne Saxe, would be their candidate.^[23] Emma Richardson, who previously lost the Liberal nomination, also sought the Green Party nomination.^[24]

On May 28, the People's Party announced that Dennis Wilson would be their candidate.^[25]

The Longest Ballot Committee has chosen the riding for its next target; this may result in dozens of independent candidates.^[26] They intend to do this due to opposition to first-past-the-post voting.^[27] As of June 3, 2024, there were 84 candidates confirmed by Elections Canada,^[28] breaking the previous record of 48 set in the Winnipeg South Centre by-election of June 19, 2023.

• By-elections to the 44th Canadian Parliament