Polls close in B.C. federal byelection as Trudeau government reels ...

The Conservatives have won a byelection in the B.C. riding of Cloverdale—Langley City, CBC News projects.

Tamara Jansen, who held the seat from 2019 to 2021, is projected to win over the Liberals' Madison Fleischer and the NDP's Vanessa Sharma.

The loss of the riding is another blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals, who are reeling from the Monday resignation of Chrystia Freeland from her role as finance minister and deputy prime minister.

Freeland stepped down just as she was to deliver a fall economic statement, prompting calls for Trudeau to resign. 

As of 10 p.m. PT, Jansen had secured 3,465 votes, compared to Fleischer's 1,020 votes, with 80 out of 122 polls reporting.

The byelection in Liberal-held Cloverdale—Langley City comes roughly six months after former two-term Liberal MP John Aldag, who had represented the party in the seat from 2015 to 2019 and then from 2021, resigned to run for the B.C. NDP in the provincial election.

Aldag lost to Harman Bhangu of the B.C. Conservatives in the Oct. 19 vote.

It is the third byelection loss for the Trudeau government in 2024, having already lost two long-held seats in byelections earlier this year.

Fleischer, a local business owner and community leader, had faced questions from a local Métis community organization about her claims to Indigenous heritage before the vote.

The NDP's Sharma, whose party described her as a mental health advocate and anti-racism activist, is set to finish close to Fleischer in the tallies — having 845 votes to Fleischer's 1,020 as of 10 p.m. PT.

The Greens, Libertarian Party and People's Party also ran candidates in the riding.

Monday's vote was the 11th federal byelection since the 2021 election.

This year, the Liberals suffered two humiliating byelection defeats when they lost their strongholds of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun and Toronto-St. Paul's to the Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives, respectively.

Cloverdale—Langley City covers an area of Surrey, B.C., as well as the entire City of Langley in suburban Metro Vancouver.

The 2021 census showed it had around 130,000 residents, and Elections Canada says there were 92,061 registered voters in the riding.

Campaigns in Cloverdale—Langley City have been closely fought in the previous two elections, with Aldag losing to Jansen by fewer than 1,500 votes in 2019, and winning by about 1,650 votes in 2021.

All three provincial ridings in Langley were won by the B.C. Conservatives in the October provincial election. The B.C. Conservatives have no official relationship with the federal Conservatives.

Voter information cards were not sent out to constituents because of the weeks-long Canada Post strike.