Liberal candidate says judicial recount ordered in Ontario riding he narrowly lost | Globalnews.ca

A Liberal candidate who lost to his Conservative rival by just 77 votes in the federal election says his request for a judicial recount has been granted.

Irek Kusmierczyk, the Liberal incumbent in Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, argues in a social media post today that several ballots were “wrongly rejected.”

He says that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered a judicial recount to give the community “confidence” in the election result.

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Kusmierczyk says he will “absolutely and unequivocally” accept the results of the recount.

Elections Canada says that Conservative candidate Kathy Borrelli took the riding with 32,062 votes, or 45.8 per cent of the vote.

Kusmierczyk, who won the seat in 2019 and 2021, got 31,985 votes, or 45.7 per cent of the vote.

The Liberal candidate said in a social media post earlier this week that the “razor thin” margin of victory for the Conservative candidate was just seven votes short of Elections Canada’s threshold for triggering an automatic recount.

Elections Canada says the judicial recount will begin on May 20.

The agency says judicial recounts are also being held in the electoral districts of Milton East–Halton Hills South, Terra Nova—The Peninsulas and Terrebonne.