Scarborough-Rouge River opens advanced polls for Bas Balkissoon's vacant seat

The advanced polls in the provincial Scarborough-Rouge River riding opened today for the byelectiontoreplace Liberal MPP Bas Balkissoon.

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Liberal candidate Piragal Thiru faces city councillor and Progressive Conservative candidate Raymond Cho, as well as school trustee Neethan Shan running for the NDP in what's been a Liberal stronghold since the riding was created in 1999.

Balkissoon, the former MPP, resigned from his post in March with little explanation other than to tell the Scarborough Mirror in April that he wanted to spend more time with family. Neither Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne nor the party have spoken about the reason for Balkissoon's departure. He had held the seat since 2005.

ButPC Leader Patrick Brown spent Saturday canvassing with his candidate, Cho, who is running in the riding for his second time. Cho said that he's heard the same message from people during the campaign that they want a change from the Wynne government.

It was sentiment reflected earlier this week in a Forum Research Poll, which found that 41 per cent of people would vote for the Tories if a general election were called. The Liberals polled at 28 per cent, while the NDP stood at 23 per cent of the vote, according to the poll of 1,097 voters.

The Liberal candidate, however, said that as a transit planner he's best positioned to serve Scarborough, provided Toronto follows through on its recent vote to move ahead with a roughly $3-billion subway extension from Kennedy station.

A Scarborough resident at the advance polls Saturdaysaid that NDP candidate Shan had an advantage in that he speaks Tamil, the mother tongue in roughly 45 per cent of homes in the municipal district of Scaborough-Rouge River, which has similar boundary lines.

Those wanting to vote in advance of election day can do so until Aug. 26. Election day is set for Sept. 1.

The candidates include:

• Raymond Cho for the Progressive Conservatives
• Priyan De Silva, for the Green Party
• Ania Krosinska, for the Trillium Party
• Dwight McLean for the People Party
• Neethan Shan for the NDP
• Wayne Simmons for the Freedom Party
• Allen Small for the Libertarians
• Piragal Thiru for the Liberal Party
• John Turmel for the Paupers
• Queenie Yu as an independent
• Above Znoneofthe of the None of the Above Party