OTTAWA — Despite losing a nomination contest to run for the Ontario Liberals over the weekend, federal Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith says he plans to follow through on his plan to resign his seat in the House of Commons before MPs rise for the summer.
“I am going to resign my seat by the end of the parliamentary session to ensure that we have time for the party to run an orderly process and get their ducks in a row, to have a proper, successful and strong replacement,” Erskine-Smith said in an interview on CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Tuesday.
“I’ve said all along, I’m going to resign,” he insisted.
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Erskine-Smith has been the Liberal MP for the Toronto riding of Beaches–East York since 2015.
Looking to make the jump to provincial politics ahead of an eventual bid to lead the Ontario Liberals, Erskine-Smith hoped to win the party’s nomination in Scarborough Southwest, ahead of a byelection likely slated for this summer.
In February, Erskine-Smith said he would be “all in” on provincial politics and resign his federal seat as soon as Ontario Premier Doug Ford called a byelection. Ford has yet to set a date for the byelection.
On Saturday, Erskine-Smith lost the nomination by a razor-thin margin to Ahsanul Hafiz, and is now challenging the results.
The federal Liberals were just a few seats shy of the 172 seats required to form a majority government after last April’s election. But, five floor crossers — four from the Conservatives and one from the NDP — and a slate of byelection wins have pushed the Liberals up to 174 seats as of last month.
Still, it’s a narrow majority, and Erskine-Smith’s resignation will cost the Liberals a seat.
“I know there’s criticism to say should have resigned earlier,” Erskine-Smith told Kapelos. “I was doing what I could to support the federal party.”
Earlier this year, Erskine-Smith cited the fragility of the then-minority Liberal government as the reason he wasn’t resigning at the time. He told Kapelos on Tuesday that he stayed on as an MP at the party’s request, but is now planning to resign as promised, no matter what.
“You can say I’m not a team player, but I put myself through, in some cases, quite a lot of criticism, in order to make sure we supported a really tough parliamentary minority,” he said. “We’re in an easier space now.”
Erskine-Smith unsure whether he still wants to lead Ontario Liberals
Speaking about his challenge of the Ontario Liberal nomination results in Scarborough Southwest, Erskine-Smith said he still wants to be a member of the party team.
Asked by Kapelos whether he still wants to lead the party, he said: “It’s a good question.”
“I’ve grappled with this,” he said. “I don’t know that I have a perfect answer for this, because obviously, I want to deliver change across Ontario. I’ve not been shy about that.”
“I’m not sure that the Ontario Liberal Party wants as much changes as I do,” he also said.
Pressed on whether that means he hasn’t closed the door on the possibility of a run for the leadership, Erskin-Smith said: “I’m not sure. We’ll see.”
He added the prospect of him running for the Ontario Liberal leadership is “much less likely” now than it was before the weekend.
The House of Commons is set to rise for the summer break by June 19. After Erskine-Smith officially resigns his seat, a byelection to replace him will eventually have to take place.
