Justin Trudeau’s party suffers shock defeat in Toronto by-election

Results are in for last night’s by-election to the Canadian parliament: voters in the constituency of Toronto-St Paul’s elected the Conservative candidate Don Stewart over his Liberal opponent Leslie Church, taking one seat away from the government party and giving it to Pierre Poilievre’s official opposition. The count took longer than usual due to abnormally large ballots, the result of dozens of protest candidacies, meaning the suspense lasted until the winner being was around 5am the next day, when Canadians woke up to what could be an altered political landscape.

By-elections are usually sleepy affairs. This contest, however, attracted a great deal of attention for reasons having to do with national trends. It was touted by commentators as nothing less than a “referendum” on struggling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose approval numbers (along with those of his party) have been in the doldrums for well over a year.