Upcoming byelections and extractive politics

Three vacant ridings look like routine housekeeping. Read against Prime Minister Mark Carney’s year and half in office, and they look like something else.

The ridings of ex-Liberal MPs Jonathan Wilkinson, left, and Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, and of former Conservative MP Richard Martel are being contested in byelections on Aug. 31. Two of the three ridings did not lose their MPs to retirement or defeat, but to promotion, writes Bhagwant Sandhu.The Hill Times photographs by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY BHAGWANT SANDHU

August 12, 2026

OTTAWA—On the surface, the Aug. 31 federal byelections look like regular democratic business: three seats vacated, three writs issued. The real story isn’t who wins those seats. It’s about why they became vacant.

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