Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suffered a huge setback on Tuesday as the Liberal Party lost the by-election in the party’s longtime stronghold, the Toronto-St. Paul constituency. A Conservative candidate, Don Stewart, seized the seat with about 42 per cent of the vote against Leslie Church, a former Parliament Hill staffer and lawyer, who took roughly 40 per cent of the ballots cast.

The Toronto-St. Paul seat was held by the Liberals for more than 30 years, even though the party’s past low points, such as the 2011 federal election that returned just 34 Liberal MPs to Parliament. In the 2021 election, the Liberals won the Toronto-St.Paul seat by 49 per cent to 22 per cent.

Notably, the Liberals currently have 155 of 338 seats in the House of Commons.

The substantial blow to Trudeau and his government came ahead of a national election expected next year.

Despite the Liberal Party’s loss, Trudeau vowed to lead the Liberal Party into the elections next year and to “work hard” to address the voters’ problems.