Voters in two rural southern Manitoba ridings will choose their new MPs Nov. 25.
Prime minister Stephen Harper announced yesterday that byelections will be held to fill four vacant House of Commons seats:
• In Brandon-Souris to replace veteran Conservative MP Merv Tweed.
• In Provencher to replace retired Conservative MP and former public safety minister Vic Toews.
• In Toronto Centre to replace former interim Liberal leader Bob Rae.
• In Montreal’s Bourassa riding to replace longtime Liberal MP Denis Coderre, who stepped down to run for in the Montreal mayor’s election in November.
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With a House of Commons Conservative majority, the byelection outcomes will not affect the balance of power.
Tweed, former chair of the House of Commons agriculture committee, resigned effective Aug. 31 to become president of the railway company OmniTrax, which owns the Hudson Bay Railway and is proposing to use the Port of Churchill not just as an agricultural export terminal but also as an export site for oil.
Tweed was a four-term MP first elected in 2004.
The Commons agriculture committee is expected to meet this week to select a new chair.
Toews, a five-term MP first elected to the Commons in 2000 and former Manitoba attorney general, resigned in the summer to look for private sector employment.
There has been no announcement yet about a new position.
Provencher was the last rural prairie seat to elect a Liberal when David Iftody held the seat from 1993 to 2000.
It is a politically historic riding, electing father of Confederation George-Etienne Cartier in 1872 and Red River rebellion leader Louis Riel in 1874.
