YorkSimcoe candidates make final push for votes as federal byelections loom

With just one more day until residents in the longtime Tory stronghold of YorkSimcoe head to the polls for a byelection, candidates were out making their final pushes to win over voters this weekend.

The byelection inYorkSimcoeis one of three scheduled for Monday. Ballots will also be cast in the riding ofBurnaby South in B.C.where federal NDP Leader JagmeetSingh is in a struggle for his political futureas well as inOutremontin Quebec.

The federal Conservatives have held YorkSimcoe, just north of Toronto, since 2004 and won it by aconsiderable margin of 12.5 points over the Liberals in 2015.

Tory candidate Scot Davidson said Saturday he's confident the affluent riding will stay blueon Monday.

"We've had a great team of volunteers going door-to-door. And you know, it's been15 C,20 C, wind blowinggood oldYorkSimcoeweather.But that didn't stop us from knocking on over 16,000 doors," he said.

Davidson was joined by Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer at an afternoonrally attended by dozens of supporters in Sharon, Ont.

Scheersaid that the current SNC-Lavalin controversy embroiling the Lilberalswill only sway more voters to Davidson's camp.

The candidate running beneath the Liberal banner inYorkSimcoe, however,said voters in the riding aren't focused on mudslinging in Ottawa.

"To be honest, that's not what we are hearing at the doors. What we're hearing at the doors are issues about families, and the challenges that families face," said Shaun Tanaka, who also ran in the 2015 federal election.

"I think what is going to affect the vote are the issues that matter to people in YorkSimcoe," she said, adding that residentsin the riding haven't had a representative in the House of Commons for nearly six months.

The seat has been vacant since Sept. 30, 2018, when former Conservative MPP Peter Van Loan formally retired from politics.

"I think our riding is ready for a change," Tanaka told CBC Toronto.

Undoubtedly, the Tories are looking for a major win inYorkSimcoewith a federal election looming in October. CBC polls analystric Grenierwrote last month that the riding has been 20 points more Conservative than the rest of the country as a whole in the last three elections.

"If the Conservatives are in a position to form a government,YorkSimcoeis the kind of riding they should expect to win with at least 55 per cent of the vote," Greniersaid in a piece published on Jan. 10.

Though she admits she'sfacing a steep uphill battle, NDP candidate Jessa McLeansaid she hopes to "change how we look at what is possible from our governments and from each other."

"Our goal wasn't so much to win over voters, we got into this to change the message," she said while out speaking to voters on Saturday.

"We're not so much Conservative-minded up here as we are just habitual Conservative voters."

Either way, whoever wins Monday's byelection will have to do it all over again come October.