Voters in Toronto-Danforth will be heading to the polls Monday, March 19 to select their next member of parliament.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper had originally set the date for March 12 on Sunday, Feb. 5, but the revised date was issued on Monday, Feb. 6: a spokesperson from his office attributed it to an "administrative error".
The downtown east riding was previously held by the late NDP leader Jack Layton, who died of cancer on Aug. 22.
Confirmed byelection candidates include:
* Craig Scott, NDP, a human rights lawyer and professor making his first try at polticial office;
* Andrew Keyes, Conservatives, a communications consultant who made an unsuccessful bid to win the federal Conservative nomination for Oak Ridges-Markham in 2007;
* Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu, Green Party, who also represented the Green Party in Toronto-Danforth in the last federal election;
* John Recker, Libertarian Party;
* Christopher Porter, Canadian Action Party;
* Kevin Clarke, People's Party;
* and Marie Crawford, Animal Alliance Voters Party of Canada.
The Toronto-Danforth Federal Liberal Association will select its candidate on Thursday, Feb. 9.
A nomination meeting will be held at Riverdale Collegiate Institute, 1094 Gerrard St. E., at 7 p.m. Email admin@lpco.ca for more information.
Declared candidates for the Liberal nomination include:
* Longtime Riverdale resident Grant Gordon, the father of three sons and husband to broadcaster/author Gill Deacon. Gordon is the founder of Key Gordon Communications Inc., which focuses exclusively on the branding and marketing of socially and environmentally responsible companies. He's also a public speaker on topics relating to advertising and design, sustainability and ethical marketing as well as a local hockey and ball hockey coach and is the volunteer president of Dreamwalker Dance Co. as well as the co-founder of the Toronto Bridge Club.
* and Trifon Haitas, an entrepreneur who was born in Greece and immigrated to Toronto as a child. In 2007, Haitas (a videojournalist who runs his own communications company) was the Ontario Green Party candidate in Don Valley East. He also ran federally for the Greens in the 2011 election in the riding of Oak Ridges-Markham. - Joanna Lavoie