EDMONTON – Voters will be casting ballots in two federal byelections today – one of them in Alberta.
Five candidates are vying in the Yellowhead riding in the west-central part of the province.
The large rural riding stretches from west of Stony Plain to the B.C. border, and from Drayton Valley in the south and Whitecourt and Barrhead in the north.
Conservative M-P Rob Merrifield stepped down earlier this year after being named Alberta’s representative in Washington, D-C.
Yellowhead is a Conservative stronghold – won by Rob Merrifield in 2011 with a whopping 77 per cent of the vote – and the Tories are expected to easily hold it.
Retired R-C-M-P officer Jim Eglinski is running for the Tories against Liberal Ryan Maguhn and Eric Rosendahl of the NDP.
Two other candidates are also running: Cory Lystang with the Libertarian Party of Canada and Dean Williams, who is running as an independent.
Late finance minister Jim Flaherty’s seat in the Ontario riding of Whitby-Oshawa is also up for grabs. The results are less clear there, where polls conducted in the final few days of the campaign have put the Conservatives and Liberals in a dead heat.
READ MORE: Unpacking the politics: 2 critical byelections
With files from The Canadian Press
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