First-time candidate Craig Scott holds Jack Layton’s riding for the NDP
Jack Layton’s successor as the leader of the NDP will be decided at the party’s convention in Toronto this weekend, but the replacement for Layton’s seat in parliament is already known.
Craig Scott, an Osgoode Hall law professor and first-time political candidate, took the Toronto-Danforth riding Layton had held from 2004 until his death in 2011 in a federal byelection on Monday. The victory was an NDP landslide. Scott won by a 10,000-vote margin, gathering almost 60 per cent of the votes in the riding. Liberal candidate Grant Gordon, who had the support of interim leader Bob Rae to reclaim the traditional Liberal seat lost to Layton, was second place with 28.5 per cent of the votes.
Scott shared his victory celebration with leadership hopefuls Paul Dewar, Brian Topp, Peggy Nash and Thomas Mulcair alongside interim leader Nycole Turmel and Jack Layton’s widow MP Olivia Chow.