July 08, 2012 - 11:51 AM
OTTAWA - A Conservative MP desperate to hold on to his riding and a Liberal runner-up who went to court to get the razor-thin result overturned will make their cases to the Supreme Court of Canada this week.
The outcome of the case will determine whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper has to call a byelection in the Toronto riding of Etobicoke Centre.
Tory MP Ted Opitz won the riding by just 26 votes over Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj in last year's federal election.
But Wrzesnewskyj went to court, claiming procedural irregularities.
Earlier this year, an Ontario Superior Court judge found that Elections Canada officials made clerical errors at the polls, and overturned the final result.
Opitz appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which will interrupt its summer break Tuesday to hear the case.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012