The Conservatives have elected a new member of Parliament.
Lawyer and former broadcaster Jamil Jivani will be headed to Ottawa following a byelection win in the Greater Toronto Area riding of Durham, replacing former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, who resigned his seat last year.
Jivani won the Conservative stronghold handily with 54.6 per cent of the vote as of 10:00 p.m. Monday evening.
Jivani, a former political commentator and president of the Canada Strong and Free Network advocacy group, was nominated last year with 83% of the votes from Conservative members, defeating Robert Rock, who later became the Liberals’ candidate in the byelection.
Jivani celebrated the win at Chuck’s Roadhouse in Courtice, Ont., thanking supporters for putting their trust in him.
“We set out to send Trudeau a message and I think we were successful,” he said. “Durham wants Pierre Poilievre to be the next prime minister of Canada and I think that has been the resounding message from Scugog to Oshawa to Clarington.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre shared his support for Jivani in a post on X.
Congratulations to common sense Conservative Jamil Jivani on being elected as the new Member of Parliament for Durham,” Poilievre wrote. “Together we will axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget, and stop the crime.”
The MP-elect for Durham was a talk radio host on Newstalk 1010 in Toronto before he was fired, prompting an ongoing wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the station’s parent company, Bell Media.
Jivani was previously a community opportunities advocate for the provincial Progressive Conservative government but resigned his position in 2022, calling Ontario’s education minister “incompetent” over the government’s pandemic policies.
Rock, the Liberal candidate, had 23.4 per cent of the vote as of 10:00 p.m. Monday, with the NDP trailing at 11.3 per cent and the PPC in fourth place at 4.8 per cent.
The result comes as little surprise given the Durham riding’s profile, which includes several rural communities.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre tried to give Jivani a boost earlier Monday, urging Durham residents to vote for Jivani to “send Trudeau a message.”
O’Toole carried the riding with 46.39 per cent of the vote in 2021, the same election in which he was leading the Conservative party nationally. The Liberal candidate got 29.92 per cent that election, with the NDP at 17.52 per cent and the PPC at 5.50 per cent.
