Jim Flaherty’s Whitby-Oshawa seat declared vacant

Canada’s chief electoral officer has officially been notified that the seat of former finance minister Jim Flaherty is now vacant.

Flaherty died suddenly on April 10 of an apparent heart attack.

Marc Mayrand received the notification from the House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer on Monday.

According to the Parliament of Canada Act, Prime Minister Stephen Harper now has between 11 and 180 days to call a byelection for the riding of Whitby-Oshawa.

The byelection can be held 36 days after issuing the writ and on a Monday, as per the Canada Elections Act.

The earliest date the byelection can be held is on June 16.

Harper has yet to call four other byelections — two in Toronto and two in Alberta.

In Toronto, those seats were left vacant by MPs who are hoping to jump into municipal politics. Former Liberal MP for Scarborough-Agincourt Jim Karygiannis is running as a city councillor and former Trinity-Spadina MP for the New Democrats, Olivia Chow, is running to be mayor.

In Alberta, Brian Jean resigned from the riding of Fort McMurray—Athabasca, while Ted Menzies resigned from Macleod.

Flaherty was the Harper government’s first and only finance minister. He got the job in 2006 and held it for eight years through shuffles, international economic turmoil and a bout with a rare skin disease that had him on steroids.

His last budget, delivered shortly before his resignation, put the government within easy reach of balance. But he died before the budget could turn to surplus.

With files from Showwei Chu and the Canadian Press

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