Battle River—Crowfoot byelection parallels a defeated prime minister’s attempt to return to House nearly 100 years ago

But local reaction has been much different. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been widely criticized for being a parachute candidate, while Liberal leader William Lyon Mackenzie King was welcomed to Saskatchewan riding after losing in Ontario.

Then-prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, centre, with then-Ontario premier Howard Ferguson, left, and then-Quebec premier Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, in Ottawa in 1927, one year after Mackenzie King's return to the House of Commons was made possible through a byelection in Prince Albert, Sask.Photograph courtesy of Library and Archives Canada

Opinion

BY BILL WAISER

August 14, 2025

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, who lost his Ottawa riding in the April 2025 general election, is not the first national party leader to seek a safe seat in Western Canada to get back into the House of Commons. A century ago, Liberal prime minister William Lyon M...

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