Party leaders converge on Vancouver Island as voters head to the polls in Nanaimo-Ladysmith byelection

NANAIMO (NEWS 1130) – For the third time in just eight months, voters in Nanaimo are heading back to the polls.

Voters are electing a new MP in the federal riding of Nanaimo-Ladysmith today, just six months before October’s federal election.

However, despite the string of elections, they don’t appear to be suffering from election fatigue.

The byelection is being held after former NDP M.P. Sheila Malcolmson resigned in January to successfully run for the B.C. New Democrats in the provincial riding.

David Black, a political communications expert at Royal Roads University, expects a significant voter turnout in the contest.

“That typically means that the higher the turnout, the less predictable the race because you have a lot of voters who are not partisan, who aren’t, you know, sort of committed to party x, y, z, who may be persuadable,” he explained.

In the last federal vote in October of 2015, Nanaimo-Ladysmith saw 75 per cent of eligible votes cast ballots.

More recently, voter turnout in the municipal vote last October was 40 per cent. It was 53 per cent in the Jan. 30 provincial byelection.

With people across the country expected to cast their ballots this coming October, there isn’t much time for the winner of today’s byelection to make an impression on Parliament Hill.

Hamish Telford, a political science professor with the University of the Fraser Valley, admits it’s unusual to see a byelection so close to a federal election.

“I can’t remember a byelection so close to a general election happening any time recently,” Telford said.

However, Black believes the presence of five national political leaders in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith race highlights the importance of today’s vote.

“It’s kind of, in its own way, a proving ground, a laboratory for national political messaging as we head into the October federal,” Black noted.

Voters will chose between Bob Chamberlin for the New Democrats, Jennifer Clarke for the People’s Party of Canada, Liberal Michelle Corfield, Conservative John Hirst, Jakob Letkemann of the National Citizens Alliance, Green Paul Manly, and Brian Marlatt of the Progressive Canadian Party.

-With files from Taran Parmar