Jamie Sarkonak: The rake of diaspora politics hits Nate Erskine-Smith in the face

Liberal Member of Parliament Nate Erskine-Smith arrives to a Liberal caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa May 6, 2026. Photo by Blair Gable/Postmedia

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Ethnic politics were all fun and games for MP Nate Erskine-Smith — until they devoured him last Saturday.

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Erskine-Smith was running for the Ontario Liberal nomination in the riding of Scarborough Southwest, with hopes of winning the riding’s provincial byelection and, eventually, the party leadership. He had the prominent public profile, the face-time with Prime Minister Mark Carney. But he was no match for opponent Ahsanul Hafiz, who won that day by 19 votes, and who was aided by a mass of voters who didn’t appear to know English.

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Born in Bangladesh, Hafiz immigrated to Canada in 2002 and eventually set off on a career in business, to wit, owning dozens of Domino’s Pizza franchises in Ontario. According to The Bangladesh Today, he comes from a political family: his father was a labour leader back home.

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Home-country connections appear to have brought the nomination race down to the wire. On nomination day, images circulated online showing sample ballots — nearly entirely in Bangladeshi — which instructed nomination voters to rank Hafiz first. The Globe and Mail’s Laura Stone reported that candidates were “giving speeches to a near empty room while supporters line up waiting to vote.”

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Then, Hafiz won. And instead of taking it quietly, Erskine-Smith went public on his Substack with the litany of problems that his team observed during the nomination. He’s since filed a formal challenge.

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There were 34 more ballots counted than there were voters, for one. People were observed “hanging around watchfully in the voting area, telling voters explicitly what they should do.” Multiple voters took video and speakerphone calls to, allegedly, get instructions in the voting booth. Many voters took photos of their ballots, which Erskine-Smith’s chief scrutineer said was evidence of vote buying. A large number of temporary residents voted, many of whom couldn’t state their address, or claimed that they recently lost their driver’s licence or moved to the area.

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Voters could get their ballots with asylum claim documents, unsigned apartment leases, Amazon orders, digital report cards, and even a visitor’s visa, according to Erskine-Smith’s team. The Ontario Liberals “lost control of the voting process nearly entirely” towards the end, with people loitering around and returning to lines after they’d voted.

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If foreign interference were happening, would it look any different on the ground from this?

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Indeed, the Scarborough Southwest situation bears an uncanny resemblance to the 2019 nomination for the federal riding of Don Valley North, in which busloads of international students appeared at the meeting to vote, to the benefit of Han Dong, who won the nomination and went on to become a Liberal MP. Filings with the subsequent Foreign Interference Commission stated that the Chinese government coerced the students. Dong was later excised from caucus, but the Liberals maintained that the nomination was above board.

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Hafiz and Dong both had the same campaign manager.

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Well, we’ll see how the investigation goes. Already, some onlookers are gloating, seeing Erskine-Smith’s loss as a strike of karmic justice.