Bloc Québécois candidate Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné spoke to reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, May 15, 2025. The Canadian Press
A single vote is at the centre of a heated legal fight in Quebec. Liberal MP Tatiana Auguste won her Terrebonne riding by just one vote in April’s federal election, but the result now faces a challenge in court.
Former Bloc Québécois candidate Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné is contesting the outcome after one Bloc voter’s ballot wasn’t counted due to a mailing error by Elections Canada.
The case went before the Quebec Superior Court in St-Jérôme on Tuesday, where lawyers debated whether the mistake justified cancelling the entire election.
Liberal Lawyer Says Recount Was Fair
Marc-Étienne Vien, Auguste’s lawyer, argued that overturning the result would be unfair to the more than 61,000 people who voted in the riding north of Montreal.
“To cancel the election is to deny the right to vote that was expressed by these 61,115 people,” Vien told the court.
He said holding a new election would be unreasonable, noting that some voters may no longer be alive or able to vote again. Vien said that while the error was unfortunate, it did not justify voiding the result.
“These are things that happen,” he said. “To allow a contestation of elections on this basis doesn’t seem appropriate.”
Mail-In Ballot Error at the Centre
The challenge began after a Bloc supporter said her special ballot had been returned to her because of an address error. An Elections Canada employee had accidentally printed his own postal code on several mail-in ballot envelopes three weeks before election day.
Vien described the mistake as minor and argued that mail-in voting always carries risks. He said Elections Canada isn’t responsible for ensuring mailed ballots reach polling stations on time.
He also claimed it’s not certain that the uncounted ballot would have changed the outcome. Vien noted that three Bloc-marked ballots were found in garbage bins at a polling station but were still added to the final count. He argued their authenticity was uncertain and that removing them could widen Auguste’s lead to four votes instead of one.
Bloc Lawyer Pushes for New Vote
Sinclair-Desgagné’s lawyer, Stéphane Chatigny, disagreed. He told the court that denying a voter their right to vote is a serious issue.
“The margin of victory was 0.000016,” he said. “That shows how uncertain we are about who really won in Terrebonne.”
Chatigny said the uncounted ballot represented an irregularity that clearly affected the final result.
Elections Canada Acknowledges Mistake
A lawyer representing Elections Canada, David Baum, told the court the agency recognized an error occurred but would not take sides in the dispute.
Baum referred to a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that said elections are not designed to be perfect and that small mistakes do not always justify cancelling a result.
“It’s a big, complex machine, and errors are inevitable,” he said.
The Quebec Superior Court will decide whether the one-vote win stands or whether Terrebonne voters must return to the polls.
